Meningitis death toll rises

• NCDC says it’s now  282 in 5 states

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed the outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) in five states with 282 deaths.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Chief Executive Officer of the centre, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

Ihekweazu said that 1,966 suspected cases have been recorded while 109 have been confirmed since the outbreak of the disease in February in the country.

He said that the centre had deployed a response team to the affected states to vaccinate the residents and control further spread of CSM.

According to him, Zamfara has the highest number of confirmed cases of 44, followed by Katsina with 32, Sokoto 19, Kebbi 10 and Niger 4 confirmed cases.

He also said that there is an inter-agency response supporting the states to contain the outbreak through the primary mode of vaccination.

However, Ihekweazu explained that a new strand of meningitis called “stereotype C” has emerged in place of the previous known type “stereotype A”, which has disappeared.

He regretted that there was not yet commercially available vaccine for this new stereotype “C” meningitis.

“There is a vaccine available but it is not commercially available for the stereotype involved in this specific outbreak and we have to make application to the World Health Organisation for the vaccines.

“Thankfully the vaccines have arrived and we have started vaccination campaign in Zamfara. We are in the process of starting in Sokoto and Kebbi states.

“We continue to advocate for scientists and for the global community to really try and push to develop a vaccine for meningitis `C’, on the other hand all we can do is prevention,” he said.

Ihekweazu said that prevention and early detection was key to combating the disease, if detected early, it could be treated with antibiotics.

He said that the centre was working with the states by supporting and ensuring they have the supplies to combat the disease.

“Meningitis is a tough disease especially during this period and it is associated with over-crowding, understanding the living conditions in the country, people must keep their building ventilated,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to avoid sleeping in overcrowded condition and if a lot of people must sleep together in the same room, the windows and doors must be open to allow enough ventilation.

The chief executive officer assured that the centre would work with state governments in the North West and North Central, where most cases were recorded, to ensure better preparation and avert similar outbreak next year.