The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has revealed that an outbreak of meningitis in the country has killed 269 people in the last few weeks. Meningitis is the inflammation of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord which can be caused by viral or bacterial infections.

The centre late on Tuesday noted that as at Monday, 1, 828 suspected cases of the disease were reported with 269 deaths in 15 out of the 36 states in the country. NCDC said it is currently working with the World Health Organization (W.H.O), the UNICEF and Doctors without Borders, to control the outbreak.

Let’s recall that over 2, 000 deaths from an outbreak of the disease were recorded in 2009, due to inadequate basic healthcare in the rural parts of the country, where most people survive on less than $2 per day. 33 died of meningitis in 2016.

Anita Fatunji