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March 27, 2002

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Meningitis Kills 148 in West Africa's Niger"

Reuters (www.reuters.com) (03/26/02)

Officials in Niger report that at least 148 people have died from meningitis this year, with sporadic outbreaks of the disease occurring in most regions of the West African nation.  Statistics show there were nearly 1,900 cases of meningitis reported by mid-March, and two regions reported that the disease had reached epidemic proportions.  In anticipation of the epidemics that tend to hit the "meningitis belt" during the dry season, the government of Niger began stocking medicines as early as last November.  An outbreak between January and July 2001 took the lives of about 600 people, and in 1995, almost 4,000 people in Niger died from meningitis.

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