MENINGITIS FAST FACTS:

  • Cause: Bacterium Neisseria meningitidis. Strains A, B, C, Y, and W135 are the most common. Infected people typically carry the disease without showing symptoms and spread the bacteria through coughing and sneezing.
  • Symptoms: Meningitis causes sudden and intense headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, and stiffness of the neck. Death may occur within hours of the onset of symptoms.
  • Prevalence: Meningitis occurs sporadically throughout the world, but the vast majority of cases and deaths are in Africa. Epidemics regularly hit countries in the area referred to as the African "meningitis belt," which stretches across the continent from Senegal to Ethiopia. The total population at risk in these countries is around 300 million.
  • Treatment: Without treatment, bacterial meningitis kills up to 50 percent of infected people. Even if the disease is diagnosed early and treated with appropriate antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol or ceftriaxone, the case fatality rate remains 5 to 10 percent. As many as one out of five survivors will suffer from neurological after-effects such as deafness or mental retardation.
  • Vaccination: Timely mass vaccinations are the most effective means of limiting the spread of epidemics. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that mass immunizations have managed to prevent up to 70 percent of expected cases in individual meningitis outbreaks in Africa. MSF vaccinates 3 to 5 million people against meningitis every year. The global response to outbreaks has been hampered by a shortage of an appropriate vaccine.

Africa's "meningitis belt", which is highly prone to epidemics, has 300 million inhabitants and stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.


Use your mouse to hover over the map below to identify the countries included in the meningitis belt.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM

Every emergency is different, but in the event of a crisis, MSF turns to a special emergency pool of aid workers to manage the response. Each Emergency Response Team is configured differently, depending on the nature of the emergency, but the MSF team members you see below all have experience responding to an epidemic and have agreed to share their stories and insights. Click on any team member to read their blog:

SITUATION REPORTS

VIEW ALL REPORTS

Disclaimer: Throughout these pages you will see and hear information about how Doctors Without Borders reacts to emergencies, specifically a meningitis epidemic in Africa. This is a predictable crisis, happening each year and affecting millions of people. Here you will find historical and anecdotal information from official MSF reports and from field volunteers, who were part of the massive vaccination effort. This information is not to suggest that this crisis is happening right now.