WHO reports 532 confirmed cases, 124 deaths in Nigeria’s meningitis outbreak

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that Nigeria has been hit by an outbreak of meningitis in 81 local government areas in 22 of the 36 states, along with the Federal Capital Territory.

Between October 1, 2022 and April 16, 2023, 1,686 suspected cases have been recorded, of which 532 have been confirmed, leading to 124 deaths.

The Case Fatality Ratio is 7%. In addition, the report showed that 57% of the total suspected cases were male, while children aged between one and 15 years old were the most affected group.

Jigawa state accounts for 74% of all suspected cases, and the region is close to Niger’s Zinder area, where there was a meningitis outbreak from October 2022.

The Sub-Saharan Africa belt that stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia and includes the northern part of Nigeria has the highest disease rate.

The WHO stated that meningococcal meningitis is transmitted from person to person via droplets of respiratory and throat secretions, usually by asymptomatic carriers.

Close and prolonged contact with an infected person or living with a carrier facilitates the spread of the disease.

The average incubation period is four days but can range between two and 10 days.

The challenges in controlling the outbreak include the difficulty in accessing some communities due to security concerns, inadequately trained personnel in states for case management, poor and inconsistent reporting from states, and poor health-seeking behaviour due to the difficult terrain, high cost of transportation to treatment centres and poor personal and community hygiene promotion.

WHO is implementing response measures at the national level with the NCDC, including vaccination, surveillance, active case finding, sample testing, and case management, to control the spread of the disease.

According to the global organisation’s risk assessment, Nigeria has implemented interventions to combat meningitis, including introducing the meningococcal A (MenA) conjugate vaccine against NmA from 2011 to 2022.

Although Nigeria has vaccinated more than 100 million people between the ages of one and 29, immunisation coverage remains suboptimal at 50% as of 2021.