Burkina Faso: Appeal for Help to Fight Meningitis

[Snowy Owl]

Burkina Faso: Appeal for Help to Fight Meningitis

http://allafrica.com/stories/200702240166.html

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

Ouagadougou

The government of Burkina Faso on Friday appealed to international donors for US $1.6 million to help finance efforts to combat a deadly meningitis outbreak.

At least 2,752 cases of bacterial meningitis have been reported this year, including 258 deaths. This is an increase of about 700 cases compared with the same period last year.

"I solemnly appeal to all the partners of Burkina Faso who have always been at our sides to give us their support once again so that we can together overcome as early as possible this epidemic," Health Minister Alain Yoda told reporters on Friday.

He also said the government urgently needed more than three million doses of meningitis vaccine to carry out its inoculation campaign in 15 of the country's provinces.

Last month the government expressed concern that Burkina Faso could face a major meningitis outbreak this year due to a lack of health coverage of some districts that suffered a meningitis outbreak last year.

It adopted a $2.2 million plan to combat the illness but is short of money.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in Burkina Faso, Dr. Amidou Baba-Moussa, assured the government that some vaccines would be available soon.

Pharmaceutical firms are reluctant to produce large quantities of meningitis vaccines unless major epidemics occur. They rarely deliver more than 500,000 doses to one country, he said.

"There are logics facing each other here: the humanitarian and the industrial ones, and firms will only produce doses of vaccines for which they can get a market," Moussa said.

Meanwhile, the government has launched a communication campaign in 11 local languages to inform people about signs of meningitis. It has also set up a national committee on the outbreak, including WHO, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Health authorities have been trained for epidemiologic surveillance.

A vaccination campaign is underway in the epidemic districts of Banfora (west), Batie (southwest) and Titao (north).

Scientists in Mali are experimenting with a drug produced in India that they say could halve the disease's impact once tests are finished in 2009.

[Niko]

Burkina Faso: Appeal for Help to Fight Meningitis

<table class="lan18" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95&#37;"><tbody><tr><td class="lan18" align="center" height="30" valign="bottom"> Meningitis kills more than 400 in Burkina Faso
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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="hui12" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center">www.chinaview.cn 2007-03-11 13:07:09 </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="50%"> <tbody><tr> <td height="10">
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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="lt14" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="93%"> <tbody><tr> <td class="lt14"> LOME, March 10 Xinhua) -- An outbreak of meningitis has killed 432 people in Burkina Faso since January, while the epidemic has spread to the capital city of Ouagadougou, according to reports from there.

According to a report from the Health Ministry, with 4,958 recorded cases, the mortality rate of the outbreak was almost 10 percent and the disease has spread to the capital Ouagadougou, especially the 30th district in the southeast where many meningitis patients have been relocated.

Of the 55 health districts in the country, 15 had passed epidemic proportions -- at least 10 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants, and another 10 were at even greater risk, the report said.

The ministry has asked residents to seek medical treatment after showing typical symptoms like high fever, headaches, stiff necks and vomiting.

Health Minister Alain Yoda said in February that the government needed 1.2 million euros (about 1.6 million U.S. dollars) in aid to help finance a vaccination campaign after the country's stocks ran out.

Burkina Faso, ranked the third-poorest country in the world in the United Nation's 2005 Human Development Index, is in the sub-Sahara "meningitis belt" that runs from Senegal to Ethiopia.

According to the World Health Organization, meningitis affects the brain and the spinal cord, with symptoms of stiff neck, high fever, headache and vomiting. It also causes complications including brain damage and deafness.

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[Snowy Owl]

Re: Burkina Faso: Appeal for Help to Fight Meningitis

$ 1.6 million divided by 432 + = $ 3 703.70 per persons (432) woul have save their Life, and a lot other in line I am told.

Wonder how much worth an African Life,.... last figure I saw was $28.10

At this pace and those prices, we will all worth $28.10 in a short time.

We should create a room;

What to do to survive a donation of $25.00, maybe if we provide psychological support, people will give more?

We could create a testimony room;

Share your experience; ''How I survive a $25.00 donation and not loosing my mind''

We should put emphasis that no rep will go to your home, no physical exam will be require, your donation will be accept right away.

Yep, let me meditate on that.


Sarcasm, cynism, outrage, ....more determine than ever.

Snowy in Fire