Meningitis spreads in south

A total of 1,477 cases of meningitis, including 117 deaths, have been reported in south Sudan since the beginning of 2007, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

Areas most affected by the outbreak include Warrap state and Yambio, Maridi and Mundri counties. So far, the disease has spread to eight of south Sudan's 10 states.

"Meningitis is a dry season disease that will continue to affect people here until around May/June," said Philippe Verstraeten, head of the emergency preparedness and response unit of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to WHO, delayed and irregular weekly reporting, inadequate surveillance systems, as well as incomplete population data, were causing difficulties in determining whether some of the districts had reached the epidemic threshold.

"Although we see many sick people here we are struggling to secure vaccines for them because we cannot get reliable population data. Meningitis, unlike other diseases such as cholera, for example, depends heavily on the availability of good and reliable data to determine the standard alert and epidemic threshold," said Verstraeten.

According to WHO, laboratory investigations have identified the bacteria Neisseria Meningitides sero group A as the strain causing the current epidemic. People aged between five and 29 have been most affected.

Meningitis is a potentially fatal infection that affects the thin lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Several different bacteria can cause meningitis and Neisseria meningitidis is one of the most important because of its potential to cause epidemics. The most common symptoms are stiff neck, high fever, confusion, headaches and vomiting. It can cause complications, including brain damage and deafness. Vaccines are available for routine prevention and to control epidemics.

According to WHO, the highest burden of the disease occurs in the 'African Meningitis Belt', which stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, a region with an estimated population of 300 million people.

Enhanced epidemiological surveillance and prompt case-management are used to control the epidemic in the African meningitis belt.

In an effort to contain the spread of the disease, 50,000 people have already been vaccinated in Warrap's greater Tonj area while another 53,000 have received vaccines in Kajo-Keji State.

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