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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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