CDC
Meningitis Belt
Today could be the beginning of the end of a deadly and disabling epidemic of bacterial disease that, for reasons not fully understood, occasionally burns an exceptionally tragic swath across central sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia.
The “meningitis belt.”
Starting today, PATH, the World Health Organization and a host of other partners begin fanning out across Burkina Faso, then to Mali and Niger to launch a massive vaccination campaign initially targeting 20 million people with the broader aim — if it gets fully funded — of ending these epidemics in 22 more countries and erasing this stripe of death and destruction.
“When these major meningitis outbreaks occur in these communities, it’s terrifying and everyone just stays inside … they just shut down,” said Dr. Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project.
Meningitis can be caused by any number of things. The term simply means an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, an inflammation that can kill, cause brain damage, deafen or otherwise disable. In Africa’s meningitis belt, LaForce explained, the cause is a particular bacteria known as meningococcal A.
Meningitis can occur anywhere, but not like in the meningitis belt, LaForce said. Continue reading