Meningitis vaccine arrives in country

HEALTH workers in Windhoek will fill their syringes with lifesaving doses of meningitis vaccine next week.

The chairman of the National Health Emergency Management Committee, Dr Jack Vries, told Nampa that 300 000 doses of meningitis vaccine had arrived for the second vaccination campaign scheduled for Tuesday until Friday next week.’Everybody in Windhoek will be vaccinated,’ he said.Vries said the Ministry of Health and Social Services had earmarked 73 teams consisting of three nurses each that will be dispatched to various points in the capital. Mobile units will also be made available. The Health Ministry has vaccinated 171 843 people, aged two years and older, in the Katutura residential area after a meningococcal meningitis outbreak was recorded in the area in June this year. The first vaccination process lasted from September 21 to 24.The ministry has recorded 43 cases of suspected meningitis since June, with 21 of them being confirmed. Five of these people have died.Meningitis is highly contagious and spreads through sneezing, coughing or living in cramped conditions.Symptoms include a stiff neck, high fever, headache and vomiting. Even when the disease is caught early and treatment is started, up to 10 per cent of patients die within two days. About 20 per cent of survivors have long-term problems like brain damage and hearing loss. – Nampa