ADDIS ABABA
- An outbreak of meningitis in the Ethiopian capital has killed
19 people and infected another 648 since it began in March, a
U.N. official said on Monday. Eyob Tsegaye, a programme officer
of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said it was becoming an
epidemic and that it was caused by overcrowded and unhygienic
living conditions in four shanty town districts of Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia is one of the 12 countries in what is called Africa"s
"meningitis belt" but Eyob said it was unusual for a
major outbreak to occur during the current rainy season.
A meningitis
outbreak in Ethiopia in 1988/89 killed some 900 people and infected
50,000. Addis Ababa"s city council has moved to immunise
all people below the age of 30 -- roughly 70 percent of its population
of 2.6 million and the most susceptible to infection. Eyob said
the government was also preparing a nationwide response plan in
case of an outbreak in rural regions. It includes sending medicines
to key places in northern, central and southern regions within
the meningitis belt.
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