Meningitis Kills 52 In 21 States, Says NCDC

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has said 52 persons have been killed in 21 states by Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM).

This is even as the Nasarawa State government said it has not recorded an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) this year.

The NCDC said as of March 5, a total of 628 suspected cases including 52 deaths (CFR 8.3 per cent) were reported from 21 states in 2022/2023 CSM seasons.

It gave the names of the affected states to include Abia, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Ebonyi, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

According to the report, 62 per cent of the cases are male patients while 38 per cent are females.

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However, the director, Public Health in the state ministry of health, Dr Ibrahim Adamu told LEADERSHIP in Lafia, the state capital on Thursday, that the state has so far zero cases of the disease.

He noted that the ministry has been embarking on awareness campaigns and immunisation exercises as precautionary measures against an outbreak of the disease each year.

He said Nasarawa indigenes living outside the state, showing symptoms of the disease, may have been admitted in facilities within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“That doesn’t mean there is an outbreak in the state. We have not recorded such, if there are I will have known,” he explained.

He, however, said the ministry has since activated its emergency response mechanism across the 13 local government areas of state as the heat intensified.

He appealed to the people of the state to avoid overcrowded spots, sleep in ventilated rooms and seek medical attention whenever they feel unusual.

“It usually affects young adults and people that live in a very poor ventilated environment”, he noted.

The NCDC said the national multi-sectoral Cerebrospinal Meningitis Technical Working Group (TWG) will also continue to monitor response across states.

Meningitis, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 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 or causing severe cerebral brain damage before hours.