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Meningitis outbreak spreads

Country Map - Ethiopia IRIN
    NAIROBI

    The Ethiopian government on Tuesday appealed to aid organisations for drugs to vaccinate nearly six million people against meningitis, the German news agency DPA reported. The Ethiopian Ministry of Health is quoted as saying that there had been an upsurge of the disease in five of the nine regional states. But a United Nations World Health Organisation officer in Addis Ababa, responsible for communicative disease control, Eyov Tsegaye, told IRIN on Wednesday that the disease had taken hold in seven provinces and was continuing to spread. "Along with other agencies we're working to get additional vaccine made available," he said.

    According to figures supplied by the health ministry, an average of eight new cases were being reported daily. Tsegaye told IRIN he was confident that the outbreak could be controlled if enough resources were made available.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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