According to the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization, more than 1.1 million people have been successfully vaccinated against meningitis in eastern Guinea.
Health workers here say that the mass vaccination campaign could help stop further deadly outbreaks. At least 52 people here have died from the disease here since the first reported cases in January.
According to the WHO, Guinea had an estimated 400 suspected cases last year. Meningitis inflames the protective tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. The disease is passed from person to person by way of bacteria that live in the throat. Meningitis usually strikes children and young adults.
Symptoms commonly include headaches, high fever and a stiff neck. One of the most deadly strains of the disease, meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial form of the illness, can cause severe brain damage and, if untreated, kills half its victims.
Experts say vaccination is the best way to prevent the disease and stop its spread. “In Guinea, only [around] 35 percent of the children are fully vaccinated,” Timothy La Rose, spokesman for the U.N. Children’s Fund in Guinea says.
UNICEF had joined with the government, WHO and other partners to launch “a campaign to vaccinate 95 percent of people ages 1 to 29 who live in the affected areas.”…
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