By Gabriel Olawale
THE death toll from the meningitis outbreak in Nigeria has risen to 839 as against the 745 reported last week with suspected cases now 9,646.
This came as a large reactive vaccination campaign targeting 800,000 persons aged between two and 29 years commenced in Sokoto State.
According to the latest update released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, the total number of deaths and suspected cases were from 43 local government areas in 23 states of the country of which only five states have at least one local government over the outbreak threshold, down from six last week.
In the report by the Technical Communications, Dr. Lawal Bakare, it was noted that the national response had identified the need to provide technical support to all affected states in case management, epidemiology and risk communication.
The NCDC CEO, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said: “The lessons from this outbreak will inform our future response activities.
“They include the need to strengthen awareness, improve clinical skills of health workers, strengthen laboratory capacities to confirm diagnosis of meningitis promptly and do the best we can to access the vaccines required to prevent future outbreaks.”
The post Meningitis: Death toll hits 839; suspected cases 9,646 appeared first on Vanguard News.
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