Meningitis

Meningitis: "When I was younger, I got meningitis. It affected my vision"

Videos and Photos2 June 2017
Msf196652 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt

Baba Makintu Community elder from Damaturu town (Yobe state, northern Nigeria), 92 years old. When I was younger, at around 25 years of age, I got meningitis. It affected my vision. For a while, I couldn’t see anymore. It also deformed one of my legs. It is now very weak. This disease has hit many of my family members in Damaturu. I have seen people die because of it, creating havoc for many families. This is why I think it is so important to get vaccinated. We encourage everyone to carry out such interventions.

Msf196666 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt

Solomon Jakob Health officer, 25 years old.​ If you take this meningitis (vaccination) you keep your whole body healthy and you can do all types of activities. Taking this meningitis (vaccine) is good for everybody. Take me as an example, I have eight children, I have vaccinated them all. Even my neighbours, my colleagues, my friends, I informed them all to come and vaccinate everyone. I gave them a lot of information about it. This meningitis (vaccine) is good for everybody from the age of one to 29. We have a lot of young people in this country, they are the leaders of tomorrow, if they don’t take this meningitis (vaccine), there will be many diseases in the country. But if many people take this meningitis (vaccine) preventively, like in the place where I am staying in Damaturu many have taken it. 95% of the population have taken it because they know it protects us from many diseases.

Msf196757 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt

Mustafa Ibrahim   Student from Damaturu (northern Nigeria), 15 years old.Student from Damaturu (northern Nigeria), 15 years old. There are ten of us in my family and we earn our living by selling goods in the market. I have come here with some of my brothers and sisters. Our father has encouraged us to get vaccinated against meningitis as this disease can create lots of problems. We don’t have to be afraid if we get protected.

Msf196654 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt

Hamza Hassan MSF health promotion supervisor in Damaturu meningitis vaccination campaign, 38 years old. We started our health promotion at least three days before the implementation with a great number of community mobilisers going from house to house, meeting community leaders, religious leaders, women groups, youth groups, union workers, to inform them about this deadly disease so that people become aware that meningitis can kill, it can cause disabilities. This disease is a very deadly disease, so the people want this vaccination as a way to prevent meningitis.

Msf196664 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt

Daniela Muñoz Logistics Coordinator with MSF Every single last detail must be controlled when you organise mass vaccination campaigns such as the meningitis intervention in Yobe. Successfully vaccinating tens of thousands of people in a week, in remote areas and with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, requires thinking even about the pens that one will need. The most delicate and essential part is maintaining the cold chain: that is, keeping the vaccines at a constant temperature of between 2 and 8 degrees. Otherwise, the vaccination loses its full effect.

Msf196652 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt
Msf196666 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt
Msf196757 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt
Msf196654 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt
Msf196664 Msf Niger Nigeria Meninigitisbelt

For yet another year, Nigeria and Niger are facing severe outbreaks of meningitis C. Both countries are part of the ‘meningitis belt’, a region that stretches across the continent from Senegal to Ethiopia, and is particularly affected by the disease during the dry season. From 13 December 2016 to 14 May 2017, a total of 13,943 suspected cases and 1,112 deaths of meningitis have been reported from 24 states in Nigeria, according to WHO. In Niger, between 1 January and 7 May, there were 179 deaths from meningitis out of a total of 3,037 recorded cases, mainly in the west of the country, according to the Ministry of Health.

MSF has supported the Ministry of Health response in Nigeria and Niger, with surveillance, case management and helping with the vaccination of more than 740,400 people in both countries. Meningitis outbreaks are recurrent in this region and vaccination would be the best solution for avoiding them. Unfortunately, there is insufficient vaccine production to preventively vaccinate against meningitis C, the most common serogroup in the region in the last years although there are also cases from other serogroups in these outbreaks.