Meningitis claims five in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Apr 6, 2005 (PANA) – A meningitis outbreak has in the last
ten days claimed five people at a refugee camp in Sudan’s strife-
torn western region of Darfur, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO).

The UN health agency said it had launched a mass meningitis
vaccination campaign at the Saraf Omra camp in the north of
Darfur, in collaboration with the Sudanese ministry of Health and
several NGOs.

In a statement, WHO said at least 75,000 people between the ages
of 2 and 30 will be vaccinated, adding that 100,000 doses of
vaccine arrived in Saraf Omra last Thursday on a WFP helicopter.

Seventy-one people at the camp have already been infected with
the infectious illness, an infection of the meninges membrane
that covers the brain and spinal cord like a sheath.

The vaccination campaign will take eight days and priority will
be given to more populated areas, WHO indicated.

When the first suspected cases of meningococcal disease were
reported last mid March in Saraf Omra, the Federal Ministry of
Health in Sudan requested 161,000 doses of trivalent vaccine from
the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision
for Epidemic Meningitis Control.

The vaccine is expected to arrive this week.