Nigerian authorities knew they had a major epidemic on their hands when the number of meningitis cases reported in the first two months of 1996 surpassed the total of the previous four years. The epidemic swept through at least 10 of Nigeria’s 21 states, as well as Burkina Faso and other countries in the sub-Saharan region known as the Sahel. By the time it was over in late May, the number of meningitis cases reported in Africa had reached an all-time high--more than 140,000 cases and at least 15,000 deaths. And those numbers, say officials, are most likely too low. After all, they don’t have the cdc in Nigeria, notes Marc Gastellu Etchegorry of Doctors Without Borders, an international relief organization.
The epidemic arrived with the arid season, when the air in Nigeria becomes so dry and dusty that delicate mucous membranes in the nose and throat can chap and ...
