Meningitis Kills Four In Niger State

Four people have been confirmed died from Cerebrospinal Meningitis in Niger state, following the outbreak of the disease in the state.

The state’s Commissioner of Health, Dr Mustapha Jibril, told reporters on Wednesday that the deaths were recorded in Katcha and Magama local government areas of the state.

According to him, about 31 cases were reported, out of which nine have been confirmed after laboratory tests were conducted.

The disease resurfaced in the country following an outbreak that claimed the lives of over 400 people across Nigeria in the previous year, most of them from the Northern region.

While Zamfara State was the most affected by the outbreak, an incident which sparked trade of words between governor Abdulaziz Yari and the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II

Disturbed by the outbreak, state governors and traditional rulers of the 19 northern states held an emergency meeting in April 2017, to discuss ways to prevent further killings and contain the spread of Meningitis.

After much efforts to tackle the disease, the Federal Government declared Nigeria officially free of the deadly disease.

This was according to the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole while addressing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting in June 2017.

Meanwhile, a statement from the incident manager of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), John Oladejo, revealed 181 laboratory-confirmed cases of Meningitis as at April 2017.

The statement read in part: “As at April 5, 2017, 3,959 suspected cases have been reported as part of the current outbreak, of which 181 cases have been laboratory-confirmed.

“A total of 438 deaths (11 per cent of all cases) have been reported from 106 LGAs in 19 states in the country and outbreak response and control activities are ongoing in the State to curtail the outbreak.”