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NIGER: Health officials brace for meningitis peak

17 Feb 2009 18:40:11 GMT
Source: IRIN

Background

• Meningitis

DAKAR, 17 February 2009 (IRIN) - Health officials in Niger are increasing meningitis prevention efforts as the peak period for the deadly disease – March to May – approaches.

"We are supporting teams from the Ministry of Health, giving advice, investigating infected homes and giving medicine and vaccinations," said Garba Soga, prevention control manager with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Niger.

"WHO has made available 800,000 doses of the VAM A+C vaccine [used to prevent two strains of meningitis]," he added.

Niger's population is 13.7 million.

Soga said a recent meningitis outbreak in the south of Niger is under control. "Niger is in the middle of Africa's meningitis belt. Every dry season there are epidemics."

During the dry season in West Africa, typically October to June, dust winds from North Africa and cold nights lead to more respiratory infections, making people more susceptible to meningitis, according to WHO.

The Niger outbreak, which started in December, has killed 29 people of 647 infected as of 13 February, according to WHO. The mortality rate is lower than last year and falls within WHO's 90-percent survival threshold for "successful treatment rates", according to WHO's Soga.

During the same period in 2008, there were 212 reported infections, but nearly as many deaths, he said. "Treatment rates by the country's health services are therefore very good."

The outbreak in Gaya, in the southern Dosso region, is considered an epidemic because there are at least 10 infections for every 100,000 inhabitants. The towns Magaria and Matameye in the Zinder region and Keita in the Tahoua region are "on alert", Soga said.

Meningitis spreads most rapidly in overcrowded living quarters, passing from person to person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions. Bacteria that cause the infection attack the spinal cord or brain lining, potentially leading to paralysis, deafness, nervous disorders or death.

hb/pt/np

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