Nigeria records 532 meningitis cases, 124 deaths

Out of 1,686 suspected cases of meningitis, Nigeria has reported a total of 532 confirmed cases, including 124 fatalities, for a case-fatality ratio of 7%.

Between October 1, 2022, and April 16, 2023, cases were reported from 81 local government districts in 22 states, including the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria.

This is in accordance with data on the disease’s epidemiology given by the World Health Organization as of April 27, 2023, for Nigeria.

According to the research, males make up 57% of all suspected cases.

Children between the ages of 1 and 15 account for the largest percentage of reported cases. Jigawa state, which borders the Zinder area of Niger, where a meningitis outbreak has been documented since October 2022, accounts for 74% (n = 1252) of all suspected cases.

“Patients in 18 states provided a total of 481 cerebrospinal fluid samples. 247 of these samples had positive PCR results for bacterial infection. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C (NmC) was responsible for 226 (91%) of the positive cases, followed by 13 (5.4%) of the cases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, and just one (0.4%) by Haemophilus influenzae.

“The results were negative for 232 samples, while two samples’ results are still waiting. Only 41 of 140 samples tested over the past five weeks (epidemiological weeks 11 to 15) (or 29%) were NmC positive. Eight states, including Jigawa (231), Zamfara (six), Yobe (five), Benue (one), Gombe (one), Katsina (one), Oyo (one), and Sokoto (one), reported the confirmed cases.

There are 27 LGAs in Jigawa State, and 25 of them have reported at least one suspected case. Jigawa state has seen 66 fatalities. With 505 and 247 cases, respectively, Maigatari LGA and Sule-tankarkar LGA represent 60% of all reported cases during the current outbreak and have both surpassed the epidemic threshold of 10 suspected cases per 100,000 people.

At the national and state levels for Jigawa, the CFR for the outbreak is 7% and 5%, respectively.

Meningitis is a dangerous infection of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, known as the meninges. It is a fatal illness and a significant public health issue. The condition can be brought on by a variety of pathogens, such as bacteria, fungi, or viruses, but bacterial meningitis is the one that causes the most global burden.

Meningitis can be brought on by several microorganisms. The most frequent ones include Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria meningitidis. The most likely to cause significant epidemics is N. meningitidis, which causes meningococcal meningitis.

Through respiratory and throat secretions, meningococcal meningitis is spread from one person to another, typically by asymptomatic carriers. Living with a carrier or being in close proximity to someone who is infected helps the disease spread. The incubation phase lasts four days on average, but it can last anywhere between two and ten days.

The highest illness rates are seen in the extended meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa, which spans 26 nations from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east and includes northern Nigeria.

In these nations, meningitis has a seasonal pattern, peaking between March and April when there is persistently low air humidity and high levels of dust that are thought to harm the pharyngeal mucosa and facilitate the colonization of the nasopharyngeal epithelium by meningococci. The extent of seasonal epidemics changes every year.

Mass vaccination campaigns and enhanced case discovery and management are just two of the response methods used during an outbreak that help control it, according to the WHO.

In Nigeria, epidemics of meningococcal meningitis have been documented in the recent years.

However, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention is putting response strategies into place at the national level with assistance from WHO.