W.H.O Rates Nigeria, 15 Others High In Fight Against Meningitis

Posted by admin | 8 years ago | 2,215 times



The World Health Organization, WHO, has said Nigeria alongside 15 other African countries are rated high in the fight against the epidemic of meningococcal A meningitis.
It is a bacterial infection of the lining of the brain and spinal cord which has swept across 26 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa killing and disabling young people annually and causes severe brain damage within hours.
Making the commendation from findings reported in a special collection of 29 articles in the journal “Clinical Infectious Diseases,” with guest editors from the former Meningitis Vaccine Project, a partnership between WHO and the international health non-profit organization, PATH, the global health body noted that five years after an affordable meningitis A vaccine was introduced, its use has led to the control and near elimination of the deadly meningitis A disease in the African “meningitis belt.

DG WHO, Margaret Chan said, the vaccination campaigns reached more than 237 million people aged 1 through 29 years in 16 countries including Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, and Togo.
She further noted that out of the 26 countries in the African meningitis belt, 10 still need to fully roll out vaccination.
Reacting to Africa’s achievement, President and Chief Executive Officer of PATH, Steve Davis warned that the communities should not risk squandering the amazing lifesaving investment


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