Nigeria gets one million meningitis jabs to fight outbreak

LAGOS - Nigeria has taken delivery of over 1.2 million vaccine doses to contain an outbreak of meningitis that has killed dozens and sickened hundreds others, UNICEF and the jabs supplier said Friday.

The outbreak has already claimed over 70 lives and infected more than 800 people across 23 of the country's 36 states, the UN agency said in a statement.

Nigeria, with a population of 220 million, is one of the continent's 26 meningitis hyper-endemic countries, an area known as the African Meningitis Belt that stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

Meningitis infection leads to inflammation of the membranes or meninges that protect the brain and spinal cord.

It has multiple causes including viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic pathogens.

Symptoms often include headache, fever and stiff neck. Bacterial meningitis is the most serious and may result in septicaemia or blood poisoning that can seriously disable or kill within 24 hours.

Nigeria's health minister Muhammad Ali Pate, , cited in the statement, said the arrival of the Men5CV vaccine doses was "a crucial milestone" in the country's campaign to fight the outbreak.

The Men5CV vaccine shields against the five major strains of the meningococcal bacteria (A, C, W, Y and X) in a single shot, offering broader protection.