Over 1,000 Dead in Burkina Meningitis Epidemic
Disease Believed to be Carried by Mecca Pilgrims 

By Brahima Ouedraogo
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, April 11, 2002; 5:14 PM 

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso –– Aid workers opened makeshift clinics in tents 
and schools Thursday as hospitals overflowed with feverish victims of a 
meningitis strain that has reached epidemic levels, killing more than 1,000 
people in Burkina Faso this year.

As of Sunday, the latest date for which figures were available, the outbreak —
 linked to a pilgrimage to Mecca two years ago — had killed 1,059 people in 
the impoverished desert country, the Health Ministry reported.

"The situation is still worrying, because the number of victims is still 
going up," Health Minister Pierre Tapsoba said during a tour of a hospital in 
Oaugadougou, the capital.

The Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres set up cots in classrooms and 
under tarps, handing out medication to sick children and adults suffering in 
the dusty heat of the dry season on the edge of the Sahara.

The epidemic has been linked to an outbreak among Islamic pilgrims traveling 
to the holy site of Mecca in 2000.

"People sleep in close quarters when they're traveling to Mecca, and the 
virus was circulated among them," said Iain Simpson of the World Health 
Organization in Geneva. "People were coming back from haj with the 
infection."

The strain, W135, has existed for decades. It has not been known to reach 
epidemic levels until now, Simpson said.

Meningitis, which causes inflammation of the brain, triggering headaches and 
fever, breaks out in the dry season each year in a broad band of countries 
across the middle of Africa.

What is unusual this year is the strain, not the deaths. More common forms 
were blamed for 1,769 deaths in Burkina Faso last year and 4,363 in 1997.

The government has recorded 8,846 cases during the epidemic. Simpson called 
the death rate comparatively low and credited the aggressive treatment.

Tapsoba said the "structures and measures set up by the ministry to combat 
the disease are proving efficient," adding, "The priority now is treatment."

The government called off a massive vaccination program after it learned the 
strain was not one of the common forms of meningitis here.

Vaccines for the most prevalent kinds of meningitis generally cost pennies a 
dose, but the vaccine for W135 costs up to $55 in the West — far too 
expensive for most Africans and their governments.

Additionally, because the strain has never posed such a threat, comparatively 
little vaccine has been made. WHO workers in Burkina Faso said only 25,000 
doses of the vaccine are stockpiled worldwide.

Medical workers said they expect the epidemic to ebb as the rainy season sets 
in.

"It's cyclical, and we're trying to work out how to protect against the 
strain for next year," he said.

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