Efforts are under way to contain an outbreak of meningitis that has so far killed 17 people in the southern Sudanese state of Warrap, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.
"We have been working in collaboration with the government of southern Sudan’s ministry of health in Warrap for the past three weeks. There have been 17 deaths and 211 reported cases of meningitis," Abdullahi Ahmed, the head of the WHO in South Sudan, said.
However, showing a large disparity in figures, a press release issued on Saturday by the Governor of Warrap State, Anthony Bol Madut, stated that more than 1,000 people had died from the disease. "There is an outbreak of meningitis and [an] unknown disease spreading fast throughout the state and there is a fear it may affect other neighbouring states. Up to this time the death toll is over 1,000 this week alone," the governor said in a statement.
Ahmed said it was common for meningitis to strike southern Sudan at this “dry and windy” time of year, as it lies within the African meningitis belt that stretches across sub-Saharan Africa.
"This year we have enough drugs for case management and we are about to begin vaccination; plans are in place for 50,000 people to receive vaccinations in Warrap and the same number in Equatoria," said Ahmed. "This is not greater than we were expecting. It is usual for meningitis cases to be seen as early in the dry season as January and February."
Three cases, he added, had been reported and were being followed in Central Equatoria, in the county of Juba, Southern Sudan’s capital.
Meningitis is an infection of the thin lining that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It can cause complications, including brain damage and deafness. According to the WHO, the highest burden of the disease occurs in the ‘African meningitis belt’, stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, with an estimated total population of 300 million people.
The disease mainly occurs during the dry season, from December to June. The most serious recent outbreak occurred in 1996, when more than 250,000 cases and 25,000 deaths were registered across Africa.
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