Government draws up plan to contain meningitis epidemic

Officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Burundi health ministry say the meningitis situation in the northern provinces of Ngozi and Kirundo has stabilised, while the disease has assumed epidemic proportions in three communes in Muyinga province. These officials said that 330 people suffering from meningitis had reported to various treatment centres in Ngozi, Kirundo and Muyinga provinces since the beginning of July. The mean death rate in the affected areas has been 11 percent. "In Muyinga, the situation is not yet under control," said Dr Dineke Venekamp, a WHO consultant in emergency situations and humanitarian action. Forty-five new cases were recorded during the week ending on 18 July compared to 37 new cases the previous week. The health ministry on 19 August began implementing the first phase of a three-phase plan, drawn up with technical aid from the WHO, to contain the disease. Under this phase of the plan, which is to last for six weeks, every individual over six months of age in Muyinga is to be vaccinated, in parallel with the provision of treatment for every case of infection. The entire populations of Ngozi and Kirundo provinces may be vaccinated in the second phase, should this become necessary. The final phase provides for the vaccination of all the people in the country not covered during the first two phases. In this way, the entire population of the country would receive protection. "The implementation of this strategy calls for emergency assistance from donors," the ministry noted in its plan. In Muyinga, 40,000 people have already been vaccinated against meningitis, with 400,000 others awaiting vaccination under the first phase of the plan. In Ngozi and Kirundo, another 200,000 people would be vaccinated if it became necessary to implement the plan's second phase. WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund had each supplied 50,000 doses of vaccine, while another 600,000 doses, due to be funded by the European Community Humanitarian Office, were awaited, Venekamp said. Meanwhile, outbreaks of meningitis have been reported in the southern Rwandan prefecture of Butare, near the border with Burundi, starting on 24 June 2002, and in camps for Burundian refugees in Tanzania, since 4 July 2002. Levels in the Tanzanian camps have reportedly reached the threshold of assuming epidemic proportions, but investigations are still in progress.