Published 21 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1638
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1638

News

West Africa has worst meningitis epidemic for 10 years

Chibuzo Odigwe

1 Calabar, Nigeria

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

More than 40 000 cases of meningococcal meningitis have been recorded in west Africa in an epidemic that has been raging for three months despite international humanitarian efforts to bring it under control.

In Nigeria, Niger, and Chad the international charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is working with local health authorities to carry out a vaccination campaign among a target population of around eight million people who are at risk.

This year’s epidemic is the largest in more than 10 years, with more than 1600 deaths having been recorded in Nigeria and Niger, the two worst affected countries. Vaccination has brought the situation under control in many areas, but there are still large areas where vaccination teams have not yet arrived.

In Nigeria more than 37 000 cases of meningitis have been recorded by the joint MSF and Ministry of Health teams.

The outbreak began around the start of the . . . [Full text of this article]


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