Worst of the meningitis outbreak is over, officials say

Burkina Faso will host international meningitis experts to a meeting in July to discuss and adopt a global response to recurrent outbreaks of the disease, Jean Gabriel Wango, Secretary General of the Health Ministry told a news conference on Thursday. The conference to be held under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) would bring together experts from "Africa's meningitis belt" which consists of 15 countries where seasonal outbreaks occur, other African countries, researchers and WHO, the official said in the capital, Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso which is located in the meningitis belt was hit this year by an outbreak of a new type of the disease, the W135 which is belived to have been introduced by Muslim pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia. More than 64% of deaths were attributed to W135. The outbreak is now however showing a downward trend. "We can say that the most difficult period has gone," Wango said. "Since 19 May, Burkina Faso has been out of an epidemic situation," he added. He however cautioned that it was necessary to watch the declining trend for two to three successive weeks before a final confirmation of its status can be made. Last week there were 191 cases and 26 deaths, giving a total death toll of 1,473 persons out of 12,784 cases to date. Burkina Faso's government has spent one billion cfa (US $1.4 million) to contain the epidemic, while donors contributed an equivalent amount in logistics, medicine and money, Wango said. The country also agreed to conduct research on the 135 type meningitis with support from the Epicentre, Medecins Sans Frontieres, WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Meningococci, Norway, the Atlanta Centres for Disease Control and Prevention an The Office for Preventive Medicine (La direction pour la medecine preventive). For the time being, authorities said, no massive vaccination against the W135 would be conmducted because it would cost 61 billion cfa ($84.7 million) to vaccinate 95% of the country's 11 million population. The worst meningitis epidemic that hit Burkina Faso occurred in 1996. It killed 4,363 people out of 42,907 cases. In 1997 and 2001 more epidemics claimed 2,533 and 1,769 lives out of 22,293 and 12,790 cases, respectively.