The Travel Doctor
Traveller's medical & vaccination centre
Health Alerts
Travel Doctor TMVC provides the latest health and travel alerts, including updates from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Press the back button to return to the list of health alerts.
Meningococcal Disease situation in West Africa
Friday, 27 March, 2009
During the first 11 weeks of 2009 (January 1- March 15), a total of 24 868 suspected cases have been reported to WHO by countries of the meningitis belt. More than 85% of the cases have occurred in one epidemic focus encompassing Northern Nigeria and Niger. So far 20 of Niger's 42 districts have crossed the alert or the epidemic threshold. In Nigeria cases originate from 16 Northern states, with states of the North East (Bauchi, Gombe and Yobe) being the most affected in the final week of the period but Katsina and Jigawa states are seriously affected as well. WHO is supporting the Nigerian Federal and National Ministry of Health to strengthen disease surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, case management and in defining adapted vaccination strategies. Technical experts from WHO have been supporting the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria since mid February 2009.
Meningococcal meningitis occurs in epidemic form in the sub-Saharan states of Africa during the dry season. The predominant type in this particular outbreak is serotype A which is preventable by vaccination with the quadrivalent vaccine available at all TravelDoctor-TMVC clinics but not by the meningococcal C vaccine offered to infants and schoolchildren in Australia. Vaccination is strongly recommended to all travelers and tourists to countries extending in the line from Senegal to Ethiopia.
