Meningitis that killed Congo schoolchildren spreads

The meningitis outbreak that claimed the lives of at least 17 children at a school in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading across the country.

Meningococcal C, which was confirmed last week, had infected at least 100 people throughout the port city of Kisangani, in central Democratic Republic of Congo. Minister of Health, August Mopipi, visited Kisangani, one of the country’s largest cities, yesterday to weigh up what local leaders are calling an epidemic.

Seventeen pupils at the local Maikazo Technical Institute had died from the bacterial infection by Sunday, health officials and local radio reports said. After tenth pupil died a week ago at the Mangobo general hospital, the state minister of education shut down the school. "It's a source of hope that this deadly disease remains curable," Mopipi said, adding that more than 40 of the cases  had been cured. The government is working on distributing vaccinations, but the Minister of Health warned that they could be too expensive. Crisis meetings have been arranged this week between hospitals, local government authorities and religious leaders and an "emergency protocol" had been put in place, so that drug treatment could be handed out."Once the epidemic is declared, we will attack it in every way possible," Kisangani mayor Guy Shilton, told Reuters news service.

The first fatalities took place at the Maikazo Technical Institute when nine students from the school died at end-November after being checked into the local hospital. According to the UN, doctors said the patients all had signs of meningitis, but it could not be confirmed. A 10th student died a week ago. While all deaths related to the outbreak were from the school, cases in other parts of Kisangani were "prevalent," said a United Nations spokesperson in the city. Kisangani, is in the middle of Africa's "meningitis belt".

Meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord, can be caused by infection with a bacterium or virus. An affordable vaccine is supposed to be on the way, according to the World Health Organization. But for poor, densely populated areas such as Kisangani, it still poses a serious threat. An outbreak of meningitis at the beginning of 2009 across the "belt" infected nearly 25,000, according to the UN, and killed more than 1,500. DR Congo was left it in the grip of a humanitarian crisis by a five-year conflict between government forces and  rebels. The fighting claimed an estimated three million lives, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition.