On The Meningitis Epidemic in Niger

 

In January of 2015, a meningitis epidemic began in Niger. This epidemic has been said to be caused by Neisseria Meningitidis sero group c a new strain.

In Niamey alone, cases rapidly increased with a peak season in May, with as many as close to 300 hospital admissions per day.
Cases rapidly dropped to about 4 cases per day by early June.

"The risk of infection is still high," the MSF has warned and strict surveillance is still being maintained in Niger.

According to a report released on the 11th of June by the Ministry of Public Health of Niger to the WHO, a total of 8341 suspected cases have been recorded with a death toll of 557 since the onset of the epidemic in January.

This epidemic was disturbing because it struck a densely populated area. Which made the risk of rapid transmission very high.

Secondly the strain of meningitis involved "c" is rare and the vaccine for it was in short supply.
This initially hampered the efforts to curb the spread by immunizing the people until the ICG came to the rescue.

Schools were shut down in April to enable a thorough and effective immunization campaign targeted at children aged 2 to 15 years.

The international coordinating group (ICG) through the WHO helped to get about 1.3 million vaccines for Niger despite the global scarcity of the meningitis vaccine.
Also a large batch of meningitis medications was made available to the people of Niger.

More than 7500 people have been treated and cured with these medications.

The strengthening of the health systems near Niamey was instrumental in curbing this epidemic through early diagnosis and treatment which helped to reduce the spread of the disease.

SAGE (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization) in October of 2014, advised that a single dose schedule of the conjugate meningitis A vaccine MenAfriVac®, should be given to children at nine months of age or more and should also be incorporated into immunization programs in Niger and other African nations on the ‘African meningitis belt’ (Senegal to Ethiopia) by the close of 2015.

Meningitis often peaks in the dry season between December and June in these regions.

This year close to 12000 cases and over 900 deaths were reported in 17 countries between January and April. Nigeria and Ghana also experienced epidemics of the disease the WHO has said.