Nearly 270 people, most of them children, have died in the past five months, during the latest meningitis outbreak to hit Nigeria, public health officials have said.
“Presently, we have 1,828 suspected cases… and we have 269 deaths in about 15 states,” Olubunmi Ojo of the National Centre for Disease Control said.
At least five northern states — Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger — and the Federal Capital Territory, have been hit hard and have crossed the threshold for an epidemic, she added.
Director of disease control at the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, Nasir SaniGwarzo, said those six states accounted for 1,090 infected people and 154 deaths.
