According to the WHO, the five northern regions of Ghana are located within the “Meningitis belt” which covers about 25 countries with around 450 million people.
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Understanding the CSM outbreak in Northern Ghana
Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) has been a major health challenge to residents in Northern Ghana over the years.
Children in Northern Ghana to be vaccinated against CSM (File photo)
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Cerebrospinal meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord. Even with appropriate treatment, around 10 percent of patient die and up to 20% of survivors have serious permanent health problems like epilepsy or mental retardation.
In 1996/1997, the worst epidemic in CSM hit Ghana where 18,703 cases were reported, with 1,356 deaths mostly recorded in the Northern regions.
Despite the fact that the infection and death rates have subsided over the years due to vaccination, this year has seen a spike in a new strand of CSM.
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Since January 2020, 409 cases have been reported in the 5 regions of the north with over 40 deaths.
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu
Pulse Ghana
The worst hit region in this new wave of cases is the Upper West Region which has recorded over 300 cases out of the total cases.
According to the Upper West Regional Minister, Hafiz Bin Salih, the death rate of the disease stood at 15.5 per cent and described it as a worrying situation.
The Regional Minister indicated that though the sero-type X meningitis, which was affecting the people in the region, had no vaccine it could be treated.
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This is an assertion that has been supported by the Ghana Health Service. The GHS claim the high fatality rate is due to result of late reporting by patients.
In a statement signed by Director-General, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye indicated that although the disease had no vaccine, there was available treatment, attributing the rapid deaths to delay in the report for healthcare.
The statement further noted that the Upper West started recording sporadic cases in February 2020, and has seen a rise in cases in recent times especially in the past two weeks.
“The current outbreak in the Upper West Region is caused by a new strain of bacteria; Neisseria meningitides serotype X which has no vaccine and Streptococcus pneumoniae which has an average case fatality of 40%”.
Upper West Regional Minister, Hafiz Bin Salih disclosed that though there is no vaccine for the new strand of the disease, the region has received 7500 vials of ceftriaxone, 1,100 infusions and five packs of pastorex from the World Health Organization (WHO) and additional 540 vials of ceftriaxone from donors to fight it.
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The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu says the government is working with experts to deal with the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) in the five regions of the north.
“We are working on how to stop the CSM and we are chasing the bacterial like how we are chasing COVID-19. We are doing education, sensitization, community engagement and all that can be done. We are even doing social distancing with the CSM,” he said.
He added that, “we are doing education, we are doing sensitization, we are doing community engagements all that can be done. The social distancing that we are talking about for COVID, we are still talking social distancing for meningitis and there are teams that are going around trying to educate and sensitize such that people won’t get closer to each other.”
CSM is characterised by fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness, altered consciousness, convulsions, and coma.
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