Meningitis kills 250

Meningitis has killed 250 people in Niger this year and another 2,800 have been diagnosed as infected, AFP reported citing latest figures released by the Health Ministry. The World Health Organisation's office in Abidjan, which is well informed of the situation in Niger, said as at 3 April there had been 2,794 recorded cases and 229 deaths. "We are waiting for confirmation of the new figures," Mamadou Kone, an epidemiologist with at the WHO office, told IRIN on Wednesday. The worst affected areas are the capital, Niamey, and Birne-Konne, some 350 km due east. WHO says it has provided $20,000 worth of vaccines and chloramphenicol, used to treat the disease. Niger has appealed for 5.5 million doses of vaccine but has received around 600,000 so far, Kone said. Meningitis strikes mostly the arid zones but is now endemic in temperate climatic areas. In West Africa; Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria are the worst affected. Transmission of the disease is by direct contact, including respiratory drops from the nose and the throat.