NIAMEY (Reuters) - Meningitis has killed at least 672 people in Niger this year, but the seasonal outbreak appears to be slowing, health officials said on Saturday.

Meningitis outbreaks are a seasonal occurrence in Africa's arid Sahel region in the early months of the year.

The disease killed 488 people in Niger in 1999 and 301 in 1998. A 1995 epidemic, blamed on faulty vaccine from Nigeria, killed around 3,000 people.