Meningitis now under control

Mar 06, 2007

MENINGITIS, a deadly epidemic that attacked northwestern Uganda recently, is under control. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has completed a mass-meningitis vaccination campaign in Arua and Koboko districts, supervising the vaccination of 291,000 and assisting the Ministry of Health with the vaccina

By Alexis Okeowo

MENINGITIS, a deadly epidemic that attacked northwestern Uganda recently, is under control. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has completed a mass-meningitis vaccination campaign in Arua and Koboko districts, supervising the vaccination of 291,000 and assisting the Ministry of Health with the vaccination of 333,000 more.

MSF says its data suggests that the nine-week-old outbreak is subsiding with the number of new meningitis cases continually declining.

The Ministry of Health is carrying out a vaccination campaign in Adjumani, Moyo and Yumbe districts.

A total of 1,200,000 vaccinations have been distributed in five districts. Out of 3,000 cases, bacterial meningitis has claimed the lives of 100 people in northwestern Uganda since the beginning of 2007. The epidemic has spread to DR Congo and southern Sudan. All three countries are in the southern tip of Africa’s “meningitis belt.” This region, which is highly prone to epidemics, has 300 million inhabitants and stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia.

MSF also runs several HIV/AIDS clinics in the West Nile region, but the two diseases have not yet conflicted with each other. “No negative link has been proven between the meningitis vaccine and HIV/AIDS,” Renaud Leray, head of the MSF mission in Uganda, says.

A, B, C, Y and W135 are the most common strains of bacterial meningitis. Those infected typically carry the disease without symptoms and spread the bacteria through coughing and sneezing.

Meningitis causes sudden and intense headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and neck stiffness. Death may occur within hours of the onset of symptoms.

Prevention methods include taking preventative antibiotics, receiving vaccination and avoiding fluid or droplet contagion. Practically, this means washing one’s hands and not engaging in contact with known cases.

Also, the sharing of food, drink, cigarettes or cosmetics should not be done. Without treatment, bacterial meningitis kills up to 50% of those infected. Even if the disease is diagnosed early and treated with antibiotics, the case fatality rate is usually 5 to 10%.

About five survivors will suffer from neurological after-effects such as deafness or mental retardation.
Timely mass vaccinations are the most effective means of limiting the epidemic.

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