Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

[Gert van der Hoek]

Meningitis epidemic kills 19 in Burkina Faso

18-01-2008

APA-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) A meningitis epidemic which broke out in Sapouy, 100 km south of the capital, Ouagadougou, has infected 119 people, killing 19, APA learnt Friday from the Health ministry.

"The epidemic in Sapouy district has reached an alarming level," Health minister Alain B?douma Yoda conceded.

In the infected areas there were five cases per 100,000 inhabitants and 10 cases out of 100,000 inhabitants respectively in a week, respectively, in a single health district.

Investigation missions have been dispatched to the Sapouy district and a proactive immunisation campaign is billed for the 19-25 period in the district to stop the spread of the disease.

The health ministry says it has earmarked 3.2 billion to fund a nationwide preparedness and response plan.

Yoda said the budget prevision is based on 20,000 suspected cases of meningitis targeted this year.

Finally, the health minister plans to provide more supplies of medicines, reagents and consumables for an "early, adequate and free management" of the disease.

Burkina is located in a meningitis high-risk area, called the "meningitis belt" where recurrent epidemic situations are recorded.

Three viruses, mainly the type A, C and W135 meningococcus have been rife in the country since 1996.

The epidemic has been particularly fatal in 2007 after 1996 with 25,852 suspect cases recorded, including 1,743 deaths. The epidemic lasted 21 weeks, from mid-January to mid-June and affected 43 out of the 55 districts across the country.

Besides, the Health Minister disclosed that people in some districts were immunized three years ago and therefore "very vulnerable" due to the closeness with high-risk neighbouring count.

http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?article52448

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

Meningitis Infections Spreading

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

7 February 2008

Ouagadougou

Epidemic levels of the bacterial infection meningitis have now reached two districts in Burkina Faso, Gaoua in the southwest, 30 km from the Ghana border, and Mandogara, just 20 km from the Cote d'Ivoire border, making it likely the epidemic in Burkina Faso is being boosted by infected people entering from neighbouring countries, experts warn.

"Now we are faced with a problem. If we vaccinate the populations in Burkina we may have to also vaccinate unexpected populations from across the borders, so we [may] be short of vaccines, or the protection will not be effective," Jean Gabriel Wango, the secretary general of the Health Ministry told IRIN.

Souleymane Sanou, director general at the Ministry of Health, has estimated 5 million people are now at risk across 20 health districts in Burkina Faso.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in October 2007 that 80 million people out of roughly 350 million who live in 21 African countries stretching from Ethiopia in the east to Mauritania in the west might need to be vaccinated against the bacterium this year.

With 267 people in Burkina Faso contracting the illness in the first week of February, compared to 254 the previous week, the number of infected people has increased, but the number of deaths in the same period has lowered from 39 to 25.

According to Wango this is due to "better case management" and the patients being sent quickly to health centres.

"We are following with the greatest attention the evolution of the epidemic," Wango told IRIN. "We have taken into account WHO warnings about risks of resurgence of meningitis epidemics this season."

WHO has been asked to approach the ministry of health on the Ivorian side to conduct a joint response, according to Wango.

The Burkina Faso government currently has a stock of 1.67 million vaccine doses which it is using to target the epidemics in Gaoua and Mandogara.

But to get hold of more, it must go through the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision for Epidemic Meningitis Control, which was set up following a major outbreak in 1995, to help ensure the limited vaccines are used where they are most needed.

Between 1995 and 1997 a meningitis outbreak across the West Africa region killed 25,000 people and affected 250,000.

The meningitis bacterium, which usually reaches epidemic levels in the region between December and May, could be especially severe this year, health forecasters have warned, as the region is heading toward the peak of a 10- to 12-year cycle of meningitis crises.

Meningitis is an infection of the thin lining around the brain and spinal cord. Even when it is diagnosed early and adequate therapy is available, between 5 and 10 percent of patients die.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802070748.html

 

[Malcolm]

Re: Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=080313175926.3ks5url6.php


News from Africa

13/03/2008 17:59 OUAGADOUGOU, March 13 (AFP)

Toll in Burkina meningitis epidemic rises to 441

A meningitis epidemic has killed 441 people out of more than 4,000 cases reported in Burkina Faso since the start of January, the health ministry said Friday.

The outbreak is centred along the border with Ivory Coast, where 44 deaths had been reported by February 20, a day before the two countries announced a joint health programme to tackle the epidemic.

"Between January 1 and March 9, 2008, we have a total of 4,061 suspect cases of meningitis, including 441 deaths, a mortality rate of 10.85 percent," Ousmane Badolo, the ministry official in charge of epidemic disease surveillance told AFP.

Dr Badolo said that of 16 affected districts in Burkina Faso, the outbreak had reached epidemic levels in seven of them. The last official figures issued on March 2 reported 366 deaths out of 3,181 cases.

Over the border in Ivory Coast, the authorities last month said an epidemic in the Zanzans border region had a mortality rate of 15.4 percent.

Meningitis is very contagious and initial symptoms include a quickly rising temperature, violent headaches, vomiting and neck stiffness. It is declared an epidemic when there are at least 10 cases per 100,000 people.

Both countries are on a sub-Saharan "meningitis belt" that stretches from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Ethiopia in the east. Burkina Faso has been worst affected, as it was last year.

In 2007, the United Nations said three-quarters of the more than 2,000 deaths from meningitis in nine countries were in Burkina Faso.

"The risk of an epidemic remains," Red Cross for West Africa coordinator Hans Ebbing warned in Dakar last month, pointing out that the "highest (number of) cases is often registered in the months of March and April."

The International Red Cross has launched vaccination campaigns and released 95,000 Swiss francs (almost 60,000 euros / 91,000 dollars) from its emergency fund to help the Burkinabe Red Cross.

The money is intended to help volunteer workers taking part in vaccination campaigns for people aged from two to 30 and efforts to raise public awareness of the risk of contagion.

At a meeting in February in the northeast Ivory Coast town of Bouna, Ivorian and Burkinabe authorities agreed to "formalise our exchanges and develop a joint strategy," Sylvestre Kiendrebeogo of Burkina Faso's health ministry said.

The neighbouring countries had worked separately, though their border is several hundred kilometres (miles) long, but infrastructure in Ivory Coast has been weakened since the north was taken by former rebels in 2002.

Health officials decided to synchronise their vaccination campaigns, share medical facilities including vaccines and vehicles and open health centres to people from both sides of the border, offering free care, they said in a joint statement.

 

[Malcolm]

Re: Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=080320174122.rbrlo5wp.php


20/03/2008 17:41 OUAGADOUGOU, March 20 (AFP)
Toll in Burkina meningitis epidemic exceeds 500

A meningitis epidemic has killed 519 people out of 5,046 cases reported in Burkina Faso since the start of January, new health ministry figures said Thursday.

Ousmane Badolo, a ministry epidemiologist told AFP "we've gone over the 500- dead mark".

Dr Badolo said that of 16 affected districts in Burkina Faso, the outbreak had reached epidemic levels in eight. The last official figures issued on March 9 reported 441 deaths out of 4,061 cases.

The outbreak is centred along the border with Ivory Coast, where 44 deaths had been reported by February 20, a day before the two countries announced a joint health programme to tackle the epidemic.

Both countries are on a sub-Saharan "meningitis belt" that stretches from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Ethiopia in the east. Burkina Faso has been worst affected, as it was last year.

Health officials from both countries decided to work together to provide free health care to people from both sides of the border, they said in a joint statement.

New vaccination campaigns were scheduled for affected districts in coming days, Badolo said.

"Surveillance is ongoing, and if there's a need, we can deal with it since we currently have a stock of 168,000 doses of vaccine and are waiting for 900,000 more doses in the coming week," he added.

Sylvestre Kiendrebeogo of Burkina Faso's health ministry said Ivorian and Burkinabe authorities agreed to "formalise our exchanges and develop a joint strategy," at a meeting in February in the northeast Ivory Coast town of Bouna. Meningitis is very contagious and initial symptoms include a quickly rising temperature, violent headaches, vomiting and neck stiffness. It is declared an epidemic when there are at least 10 cases per 100,000 people.

In 2007, the United Nations said three-quarters of the more than 2,000 deaths from meningitis in nine countries were in Burkina Faso.

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

BURKINA FASO: Meningitis epidemics in vaccinated areas

<table style="border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204) rgb(187, 187, 187) rgb(187, 187, 187) rgb(204, 204, 204); border-width: 1px; margin: 2px 5px 8px 0px; padding: 5px; width: 120px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);" align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="padding-top: 3px;" align="right">

Photo: Brahima Ouedraogo/IRIN </td></tr><tr><td style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: Tahoma;" class="ImgCreditCaption">2007 meningitis vaccination campaign in Ouagadougou.</td></tr></tbody></table>OUAGADOUGOU, 10 April 2008 (IRIN) - People vaccinated against meningitis are supposed to have protection for three years but health officials have announced that meningitis epidemics have occurred in several areas where populations had recently been immunized.

?[Health researchers] are currently collecting information so as to identify the factors explaining the recurrence of the epidemic in districts where populations have been vaccinated?, Ousmane Badolo, head of the epidemiologic surveillance department at the ministry of health, told IRIN.

Vaccination campaigns target people between 2 to 30 years old; according to the ministry of health, 80 to 90 percent of the victims of meningitis belong to that age group.

A total of 714 people have died since 1 January out of 7,184 cases.

Several different bacteria can cause meningitis which is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the central nervous system. The Neisseria sero-group is one of the most important to watch because it often leads to epidemics, experts say.

Badolo, the epidemiologist, said that health research teams from the UN World Health Organization and US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have come to Burkina Faso to investigate. ?This is the first time that such research is being conducted,? Badolo said, adding that at this stage he could only guess why the vaccination programmes have not worked.

?Perhaps it is because of population displacement,? he said, ?for instance in gold mining areas people are often coming and going.?

The health researchers will focus their work on the districts of R?o in the central west of the country, Boulsa in the central north, Titao in the north and in Sig-nonghin a district in the north of the capital Ouagadougou.

The populations in each of those four districts were vaccinated last year yet each has reached epidemic thresholds.

A total of five out of the country?s 55 districts have reached the epidemic threshold and 14 others are on alert.

Meanwhile, 3.5 million people have been vaccinated this year out of a population of 14 million. The government said it is in the process of procuring a million more vaccines with the help of UN Children?s Agency UNICEF.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=77711

 

[Malcolm]

800 dead-- Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

800 dead-- Meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i_4E9pnP4bQbrh_Hvak8v7IRSmmw

Burkina meningitis toll passes 800, capital struck for first time

14 hours ago

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AFP) ? A meningitis epidemic has killed more than 800 people in Burkina Faso since the start of the year and has now reached the capital, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

"Between January 1 and April 20, we have counted a total of 8,382 suspected cases of meningitis, including 811 deceased, which is a mortality rate of 9.67 percent," ministry epidemiologist Ousmane Badolo told AFP.

The previous official toll, given three weeks ago on March 30, had 650 deceased out of 6,594 cases.

The Sig-Noghin area in the north of the Burkina capital -- which up until two weeks ago had been spared from the meningitis epidemic -- and Boulmiougou in western Ouagadougou were now affected, said Badolo.

A total of 300,000 vaccinations had been sent or would be sent to affected areas around the country, the doctor said.

The outbreak is centred along the border with Ivory Coast, where 44 deaths had been reported by February 20, a day before the two countries announced a joint health programme to tackle the epidemic.

Both countries are on a sub-Saharan "meningitis belt" that stretches from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Ethiopia in the east. Burkina Faso has been worst affected, as it was last year.

Meningitis is very contagious and initial symptoms include a quickly rising temperature, violent headaches, vomiting and neck stiffness. It is declared an epidemic when there are at least 10 cases per 100,000 people.

In 2007, the United Nations said three-quarters of the more than 2,000 deaths from meningitis in nine countries were in Burkina Faso.