MENINGITIS KILLS 719 IN BURKINA FASO

A MENINGITIS epidemic in Burkina Faso has claimed 719 lives since January and prompted urgent calls for more vaccines. The office of preventive medicines said the week of March 11-18 saw 148 deaths for 1_073 reported cases. A total of 4_350 cases have been reported so far. The government last week said it needed 7.5m doses of vaccines to combat the epidemic. The current stocks in the country are around 2.2m doses. – AFP