Northern Nigeria on Meningitis Alert

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Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-13-voa18.cfm

Northern Nigeria on Meningitis Alert
By Gilbert da Costa
Abuja
13 April 2008


State-owned Nigeria News Agency says about 400 deaths have occurred from meningitis and measles outbreaks in northern Nigeria. Gilbert da Costa in Abuja reports health authorities are scrambling to stop what could become a major meningitis epidemic.

Since the beginning of 2008, an increased number of meningitis cases have been reported in at least 10 northern states, health officials confirmed. And while the region grapples with a deadly measles outbreak, attention is now focused on dealing with a potentially more debilitating meningitis epidemic.

Halliru Idris is the director of disease control in remote Katsina state.

"Every disease has its own season or peak period," said Halliru Idris. "This is the time of meningitis and every serious government or organization should be prepared when something like that comes. We are already prepared. We are embarking on another round of immunization."

Yearly outbreaks of meningitis are reported along the meningitis belt in Africa, which stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.

Northern Nigeria has experienced different epidemics in the past few years. The region is endemic to waterborne diseases like diarrhea and polio. The situation is aggravated by the low level of immunization, poor hygiene and sanitation.

Tunde Orebiyi of the Nigerian Red Cross says volunteers are helping to minimize the impact of an epidemic.

"We have mobilized volunteers in the states affected to carry out health education, enlightenment campaigns, based on the contingency plans we drew up," said Tunde Orebiyi. "We are also trying to do surveillance and getting data and information concerning the issue. It has not reached serious epidemic proportion. So it is still under control, but you cannot say. You know meningitis, it depends on how people are mobilized and sensitized."

Dust storms, a common feature of the January to April dry season, are blamed for increase in respiratory infections and the spread of meningitis because the bacteria attach to dust particles.

The disease, a potentially deadly infection of the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, can kill unless quickly treated, although it can be controlled through vaccination.

 

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Re: Northern Nigeria on Meningitis Alert

Source: http://www.tribune.com.ng/06052008/edit.html
Editorial
Outbreak of CMS in the North

THE nation?s newspapers reported the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) in some parts of the North, recently. The reports claimed that many Nigerians? lives were put at great risk as a result of the disease?s outbreak and several others could be affected.

IN the reports, Kebbi State was said to have recorded many cases of CSM, claiming the life of a student with several others receiving treatment in the hospitals. The situation in Niger State was worse. Nine persons were reported dead while many others were in the hospitals battling for their lives.

IT is instructive to note, however, that in the two states, the state governments? responses to the deadly disease were spontaneous and far-reaching. In Kebbi State, for instance, medical officers of the Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Birnin Kebbi, had to be recalled. Members of staff of parastatal agencies in the Ministry of Health were also deployed in the hospital to attend to the CSM patients.

THE authorities in the two states, reportedly, picked the medical bills of the victims. They also embarked on enlightenment campaigns to stem the spread of the disease.

CSM is a disease in which the tissues enclosing the brain and the spinal cord become swollen and infected. It causes severe headache, fever and stiffness of the neck. And these, in some cases, can lead to death. Though the disease is very common in the northern part of the country, other areas also have cases of CSM, especially during the dry season. Though the disease is not contagious, it has, nonetheless, claimed hundreds of lives. During the outbreak of the disease in 1996 in Kano State, which claimed many lives, the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, administered a newly developed drug, Trovan, on some victims of the disease. But the experiment turned out to be fatal, as the drug was said to have killed some children. The matter is now a subject of litigation between the Nigerian government and the pharmaceutical company.

ONE factor that experts have identified as being responsible for the recurring incidents of CSM is the kind of shelter that is available to the ordinary man in the northern part of the country. Millions of rural dwellers in the North, for instance, live in thatched and mud ?houses? with very little ventilation. Most of the houses have just one entrance and no provision for windows. In the dry season, such houses, without ventilation, will be exceptionally hot to inhabit with serious health implications for the inhabitants. Unfortunately, these are the houses most rural dwellers in the north, in particular, and other parts of Nigeria live in and, thus, are exposed to the high risk of suffering from diseases such as CSM.

THE nation?s leadership needs to enlighten people on the type of houses they can inhabit. They need to educate the people on houses that are inhabitable and/or conducive to healthy living. The rural dwellers, it has been established, are very vital to the economic well-being of the nation. They are the farmers, the cattle rearers and the little fishermen who with their ?expertise? feed the nation. The health and well-being of these people, therefore, should be the concern of the government. Government, particularly the nothern states? governors, would need to mount campaigns on the necessity for living in houses? even if they are built with mud? that are well-ventilated. They need to enlighten the people on the risk attached to living in airless buildings, particularly in the dry season. They would also need to make available CSM vaccines in their states? hospitals and make it compulsory for people to be innoculated.

WE commend both the Niger and Kebbi state governments for the mature manner they handled the cases of CSM outbreak in their states. The other states in the north should not wait until the disease begins to ravage their people before they take actions. Prevention is not only better than cure; it also spares one the agony of catering to the sick as well as saves costs.