Meningitis outbreak kills over 250 Burkina Faso

OUAGADOUGOU, Feb 24 (Reuters) Burkina Faso has called for international aid to combat a meningitis outbreak which has killed 258 people since the start of the year.

Health Minister Alain Yoda said late yesterday the government needed 790 million CFA francs (1.6 million dollar) in immediate aid to help finance a vaccination campaign after the West African country's stocks ran out.

''I launch a solemn appeal to all the partners of Burkina Faso who have always been by our side that they once more bring us the help we need so we can conquer this epidemic as soon as possible,'' Yoda said.

With 2,752 recorded cases, the mortality rate in the latest outbreak was 9.3 percent, he said. Of 55 health districts in the country, five had reached epidemic proportions -- at least 10 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Yoda called on the World Health Organisation to supply 3.1 million doses of vaccine for the 15 districts at greatest risk.

The bacteria and viruses which cause meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, are often transmitted by coughing or sneezing. People with reduced immunity to disease or malnutrition are more at risk.

A landlocked country in the arid Sahel region just south of the Sahara desert, Burkina Faso ranked as the third poorest country on earth in the United Nation's 2005 Human Development Index. Half its 13 million people live on less than 1 dollar a day.

Health experts have hailed progress in fighting meningitis in Burkina Faso, pointing out that mortality rates have fallen sharply.

As recently as 2005 the mortality rate was over 20 per cent.

REUTERS SAM RAI2040