At least 40 people have died and more than 430 taken ill with highly infectious meningococcal meningitis in Ethiopia over the past five months, the country’s health ministry said on Wednesday.
”Since November 4 2004, 40 deaths have been reported out of 433 cases of meningococcal meningitis,” said Tiruwork Tafesse, the director of the ministry’s health-monitoring unit.
”We still have cases but vaccinations have started and we hope that the disease will be under control within 15 days,” she said.
The affected areas include the northern region of Tigre, the eastern region of Afar, the western region of Benshangul-Gumuz and the eastern portion of the southern region of Oromo, the ministry said.
Hardest hit has been Benshangul-Gumuz, where 167 cases have been reported, it said.
An official with the World Health Organisation (WHO) said vaccines have been distributed to the ”infected regions” and a decline in the cases is expected.
Meningitis outbreaks are frequent during Ethiopia’s dry season, which runs from December to May. In 2004, the disease killed 163 of the 3 254 people who were known to have contracted it, according to the WHO.
Meningitis is very contagious and transmitted by person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets of infected people. It attacks the brain and central nervous system, causing fever, violent headaches and stiffness of the neck.
”The onset of symptoms is sudden and death can follow within hours,” the WHO fact sheet on the disease says, adding that 10% to 15% of survivors can suffer persistent neurological defects, including hearing loss, speech disorders, loss of limbs, mental retardation and paralysis. — Sapa-AFP