GENEVA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that it is supporting a yellow fever prevention campaign in West Africa which aims to vaccinate at least 48 million people in three years.

    The campaign will start this week with the vaccination of 3.1 million people in Senegal, and the final goal is to increase yellow fever vaccination coverage to at least 80 percent of the targeted population across West Africa, WHO said in a statement.

    After Senegal, the vaccination efforts will continue in high risk areas of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, where population vaccination rates are particularly low.

    In areas which have been determined to be high-risk, all people aged 9 months and older will be vaccinated.

    According WHO, its member states across West Africa have committed human and financial resources to the campaign, while the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization has generously supported the efforts with a donation of 63 million U.S. dollars.

    WHO itself, working with UNICEF and other partners, has provided technical support, including the structure for conducting the risk assessments.

    Yellow fever is an acute, haemorrhagic, viral disease that is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Currently, 610 million people are considered to be at risk from the disease in Africa.