The Mengi Belt

Suspected meningitis cases, deaths, reported to WHO by affected countries in Africa, as of 17 March 2006

Country,Cases,Deaths
Burkina Faso*,3636,399
Côte d'Ivoire,130,40
Kenya,74,15
Mali,160,9
Niger,614,44
Sudan W. Darfur IDP camps **,28,1
Sudan other states,526,23
Uganda Gulu district ***,37,5
Uganda other districts,514,44
Total: 5719 cases and 580 deaths

* Total number of cases includes number of deaths

2007
Sudan: 1000 people died in a week from meningitis in the midst of a civil war.
“There is an outbreak of meningitis…spreading fast throughout the state and there is fear it may affect other neighboring states,” Anthony Bol Madut

Uganda: 241 cases and 16 deaths in the first three weeks of the New Year

Burkina Faso: In this years epidemic 19,549 people have been infected with Meningitis from January-April, 2,000 people have become disabled, and 1,337 people have already died
http://mediaglobal.org/index.php/2007/01/26/deadly-outbreak-in-africa%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cmeningitis-belt%e2%80%9d/

Here’s what I really think?
The essential question that we came up with is what social, economic, or environmental factors cause the sub-Saharan African “Meningitis Belt” to have large epidemics of Meningitis which rarely occur in first-world countries? So, I thought it would be smart to actually research the Meningitis Belt and how organizations like WHO are helping to prevent the disease in these countries. In case I haven’t mentioned it already, the group has decided to build a syringe with facts on it. We are all super excited about it! I am sure you can tell! I have decided that my future goal for this project is to research on the vaccinations they use to treat the people of the meningitis belt so that we can properly write and organize our syringe steps. I should also learn about penicillin, since that is our drug of choice; I will save it for the next blog. Cheers for now.

P.S. I have decided that Africa has too many problems. Also, Samara should watch my meningococcal video.