Meningitis kills 24

Meningitis infection in Burkina Faso has killed 24 people out of 101 reported cases in 34 health districts, since the beginning of January, health officials said on Tuesday. The Health Ministry secretary-general, Jean Gabriel Wango, told a news conference that the government had launched "massive preventive vaccination" in 25 out of 53 health districts described as "highly risky", targeting people aged two years to 30 years. He added that there was a fear the infection would spread further. "More than three million people are expected to be vaccinated during the operation which is costing 1.23 billion CFA, (US $1.66 million) to prevent the disease," Wango said. Last year meningitis claimed 1,854 lives out of 13,293 cases in Burkina Faso. The worst occurrence of the disease in recent years was in 1996 when it claimed 4,000, the official said. The West African country lies in what WHO described as the meninitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa. It usually hits the Sahelian countries each year between January and April when the dry Sahara Desert winds blow south.