An outbreak of meningitis in Nigeria has killed 282 people in recent weeks, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said, as Africa’s most populous country and aid organisations attempt to tackle the surge in infections.
As of Thursday (March 30), 1,966 suspected cases of meningitis were reported with 282 deaths in 15 of the country’s 36 states, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) told Reuters in the country’s capital Abuja.
The center said on its website that 33 people died of meningitis in 2016.
More than 2,000 people died from an outbreak of the disease in Nigeria in 2009, with basic healthcare limited in rural parts of the country, where most people live on less than $2 a day, despite the country’s huge oil resources.
Meningitis is the inflammation of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord which can be caused by viral or bacterial infections. It spreads mainly through kisses, sneezes, coughs and in close living quarters.
