A large meningitis outbreak has hit the West African country of Burkina Faso. There have been 4,421 cases recorded so far this year already and 630 deaths, up from 389 in the same period last year. Six of Burkina Faso’s 13 regions are now at epidemic level.
Burkina Faso lies within the African “Meningitis Belt”, an area plagued by large epidemics of meningitis and septicaemia. Home to around 450 million people, the meningitis belt extends across the dry, savannah parts of sub-Saharan Africa, stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. During the annual dry season between December and June, meningococcal meningitis rates skyrocket. The largest epidemic ever recorded in history swept across the entire region in 1996–1997, causing over 250,000 cases and 25,000 deaths.
Historically, most meningococcal disease in Africa is caused by MenA, and accounts for about 80 to 85 percent of all cases. But a previously rare strain – MenX, is the strain responsible for the Burkina Faso outbreak, where it has caused just over half the new cases reported in the past week. Find out more about the MenX research project that we are funding.
I’m Rachel Perrin, MRF’s International Development Officer. My role is to expand the work we’re doing to fight meningitis and septicaemia in Africa where epidemics like this are commonplace and huge numbers of lives are lost every year. We’re hoping to increase the scope of our international research projects and help increase awareness of the symptoms of these diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
Rachel Perrin
International Development Officer
Posted in MRF News by Rachel Perrin on 30 April 2010
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