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As efforts continue to bring the current meningitis outbreak under control, the World Health Organization (WHO) has shipped in
650,000 doses of vaccine to protect people living in the affected areas. The vaccine, purchased by the European Commission's
Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and WHO, is immediately being distributed to the worst affected provinces of Muyinga and
Ruyigi and Cankuzo.
Already, 150,000 people have been vaccinated using stocks of vaccine already available locally through UNICEF, WHO and its local partners (including Médecins Sans Frontières and the
International Federation of the Red Cross) . The remaining vaccine was provided after an urgent appeal from the Government, WHO and its partners in Burundi.
As of September 9, 688 cases of meningitis have been reported to the Government, including 56 deaths. This is the worst epidemic of meningitis in the country for ten years and coincides with outbreaks in Rwanda and Tanzania.
The first suspected case this year in Burundi was reported in early July in the northern commune of Ngozi. Confirmed cases were also reported in early June in southern Rwanda and at the end of
August among refugee populations in Tanzania. Refugees from Tanzania are crossing the border into Burundi every day. UNHCR is working with WHO and NGOs in the camps to ensure that all returnees crossing the border are vaccinated either before they leave the camps or as they enter
Burundi.
In Burundi, around 80% of those infected are under 25 years of age and more than 50% under 15 years old. Without early recognition and treatment, meningitis can kill up to half of those infected. In this outbreak, approximately 8% of people infected have died.
The last major epidemic of meningitis in Burundi was in 1992 and was brought under control by a mass campaign in which 3 million people were vaccinated. [If this line is used, there needs to be an explanation of why the numbers being vaccinated this time are lower - or where the remaining 2 million plus doses are going to come from.]