Search
  1. Home
  2. East Africa
  3. Ethiopia

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

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join