BURKINA FASO: 5 million at risk as meningitis death toll climbs
Amid warnings of a major meningitis outbreak in Africa this year, epidemic levels of the bacterial infection have broken out in parts of Burkina Faso.
“Despite the efforts of the government and its partners in 2008, the vaccination campaign did not reach all the districts currently facing the outbreak,” Alain Yoda, Burkina Faso's Minister of health said in a press conference in early January.
Overall 774 cases have been reported, with Mandogara district close to the Cote d'Ivoire border at epidemic levels and three other health districts on high alert.
Souleymane Sanou, director general at the Ministry of Health, estimated five million people are now at risk in 20 health districts across the country.
The government has received one million vaccine doses to fight the outbreak.
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