Nigeria: Bacterial meningitis outbreak update
Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C accounts for 88% of cases
In a follow-up on the bacterial meningitis outbreak in Nigeria, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) reported an additional 1,201 total bacterial meningitis cases and 79 deaths from nine states since late February.
This brings the total cases since the beginning of the year to 1,770 (101 confirmed, 1,669 suspected) and 157 deaths for a 8.8 case fatality.
NCDC reports that Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C accounts for 88% of all cases.
This is a protracted outbreak that started last October with nearly 2,000 cases and 163 deaths from 22 of 36 Nigerian states.
N. meningitidis is found worldwide, but incidence is greatest in the “meningitis belt” of sub-Saharan Africa.
Meningococcal disease is hyperendemic in this region, and periodic epidemics during the dry season (December–June) reach an incidence of up to 1,000 cases per 100,000 population.
Although meningococcal disease outbreaks can occur anywhere in the world, they are most common in the African meningitis belt, where large-scale epidemics occur every 5–12 years. Historically, outbreaks in the meningitis belt were primarily due to serogroup A. With the introduction of a monovalent serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenAfriVac) in the region starting in 2010, however, recent meningococcal outbreaks in the meningitis belt have primarily been caused by serogroups C and W; serogroup X outbreaks also have been reported.