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Meningitis disease outbreak

    JOHANNESBURG

    Since the third week of May there have been 17 deaths and 77 cases of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A in the Balombo district of Angola’s western Benguela province, WHO said in an update on Thursday.

    “The epidemic threshold of 15 cases per 100,000 population per week has been exceeded in the affected district and the cumulative attack rate is 212 per 100,000 population since the beginning of the year. Data from other districts is unavailable at the present time,” WHO noted.

    The health organisation said that a mass vaccination campaign was launched on 13 August, targeting the population of Balombo district over 2 years of age. It added that Médecins Sans Frontières was supporting the mass vaccination campaign and had provided vaccines, autodestruct syringes and oily chloramphenical for case management.

    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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