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Scramble to contain meningitis epidemic in CAR
Aid agencies and the authorities in the Central African Republic (CAR) have joined forces to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of people at risk of meningitis in the northwest of the country, officials said.
If not treated quickly with antibiotics, meningitis can kill (Image: IRIN)
Toby Lanzer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in CAR, said the latest vaccination effort was targeting at least 80,000 people at the centre of the epidemic.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 11 February that meningitis was spreading across three northwestern districts and was threatening up to one million people. The announcement followed a declaration by national authorities of an outbreak of meningitis after several cases and numerous deaths were reported in Ouham, Ouham Pendé and Nana-Grebizi districts in the first five weeks of this year.
