U.S. Provides Assistance To Burkina Faso For Meningitis Epidemic

The United States
Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),
will provide $450,000 through the U.S. Embassy in Ouagadougou to the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) for vaccines urgently needed to maintain control
of an outbreak of meningitis. On April 10, U.S. Ambassador Jeanine Jackson
issued a disaster declaration.


Since January 2007, health authorities with the Government of Burkina
Faso (GOBF) have reported more than 19,500 cases of meningitis, exceeding
the total number of reported cases during the last major meningitis
outbreak in the country in 1996. As of April 4, 1,337 people had died from
the infectious disease.



According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, 41 of 55 health districts require immediate assistance to treat
meningitis and prevent further loss of life. The rapid increase in the
number of reported cases has strained the capacity of the GOBF to respond.



USAID will continue to monitor the situation and provide additional
support as needed.



For more information about our humanitarian assistance programs, please
visit: usaid/our_work/humanitarian_assistance.


U.S. Agency for International Development

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