Risk of meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso increases

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

OUAGADOUGOU (AFP) — A strain of meningitis in January claimed 124 lives in Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries, according to a report issued Thursday by the Burkinabe health ministry.

The International Committee of the Red Cross warned at the end of December that 14 African countries, including Burkina, were facing an epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis "that could be the worst of the last 10 years."

"We are not in an epidemic situation. But at the fourth week in January we have reached 774 cases sadly with 124 deaths," health spokesman Rene Sebgo told AFP.

An illness reaches epidemic proportions when there are at least 10 cases for every 100,000 people and an alert situation occurs when there are five cases for every 100,000.

"The...