Punch reports that in the last five months, a wave of meningitis has hit Nigeria but struck so bad in states like Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger as well as the Federal Capital Republic that it can be tagged an epidemic.
According to Olubunmi Ojo of the National Centre for Disease Control, the plague is currently attacking Nigerians in 15 states. He said on local television: “Presently we have 1,828 suspected cases… and we have 269 deaths in about 15 states.”
The director of disease control at the federal ministry of health in Abuja, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said those six territories have accounted for 1,090 infected people and 154 deaths with Zamfara State alone recording 590 cases, of which 29 people have died.
A large-scale vaccination programme has begun.
This is not Nigeria’s first encounter with meningitis as back in 2015 both Niger and Nigeria were hit by meningitis outbreaks which led to over 13,700 infections in a six month period and over 1,100 deaths.