UN supporting efforts to curb meningitis in West Africa

(Dakar and New York: 23 March 2007): A meningitis epidemic has erupted in Burkina Faso, while eight other West African countries have been affected by the highly contagious disease to varying degrees.

In total, 8,557 cases of meningitis, with 798 recorded deaths, have been reported across nine affected countries, including Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Benin, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, Chad and Togo, since the beginning of 2007. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), meningitis is a highly contagious disease that spreads very rapidly in the absence of measures to control it.

"The open borders and traditional seasonal migration which characterize the Sahel sub-region starting in May-June could lead to the rapid spread of the disease in the coming weeks. Despite the efforts undertaken by Governments, the chronic nature of such outbreaks should prompt us to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the education, prevention and response initiatives implemented over the last several decades," said Hervé Ludovic de Lys, Head of the West Africa Regional Office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The country most affected by the current outbreak is Burkina Faso, where 7,333 cases, including 583 deaths, were recorded between 1 January and 11 March 2007 -- a fatality rate of eight per cent. Twenty-two of the country's 55 districts are in a state of epidemic, including three districts of the capital, Ouagadougou.

The Government of Burkina Faso, with WHO support, has launched a $3 million appeal for international assistance, and has made $757,000 available to fight the disease to date. Canada has contributed $188,000 worth of vaccines. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has given $200,000, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has given some $57,000 through the local Red Cross to support the national vaccination campaign. The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Plan Burkina have provided technical and financial support to the Ministry of Health.

Elsewhere in the sub-region, an allocation of $1.7 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has been made available to fight the meningitis outbreak in northern Côte d'Ivoire. In Niger, measures have been taken to strengthen epidemiological surveillance, provide health care for those infected, preposition stocks of medicines, and train 120 health care workers in the regions of Zinder, Maradi, Tahoua and Dosso. The IFRC has contributed $164,000 to strengthen volunteer capacity and conduct an awareness raising campaign in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Burkina Faso. However, additional urgent assistance continues to be needed in order to contain the epidemic.

Meningitis epidemics are common across the 18 African countries stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, dubbed the "meningitis belt". The most severe epidemic of recent years occurred in 1996, when 200,000 cases, and 20,000 deaths, were recorded.

For further information, please call: Maya Siblini, OCHA-Dakar, +221 867 27 57, +221 639 20 18 (mobile); Amadou Kane, OCHA-Dakar, +221 867 30 82; Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 5126, mobile +1 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA-New York, +1 917 367 9262; Elisabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile, +41 79 473 4570. OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int.