Cote d’Ivoire became the latest country in West Africa where authorities confirmed on Tuesday of the raging meningitis epidemic.
The epidemic which erupted this year in West Africa has so far killed 142 persons, according to officials.
The Dakar-based African Press Agency reported Tuesday that the disease has killed 93 victims in Ghana where it erupted first.
At the same time, Red Cross officials in Togo and Cote d’Ivoire said Tuesday evening that 36 and 13 people, respectively, have died there.
In Ghana, the director-general of Health Services, Dr Ebenezer Appiah Denkyira, announced that the death rate was falling in the country due to the national response the epidemic was receiving.
The response was invigorated by the immediate reporting of suspected victims to medical centres across the country.
International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) officials based in Dakar said Tuesday they were coordinating efforts with national chapters in the affected countries.
Their intervention will basically focus on prevention techniques using the tested and trusted ‘beneficiary communication’ (Bencom) process to stem the chain of transmission.
The European Union-funded IFRC project was at the forefront of the fight against the Ebola disease that left more than 11,000 dead in the West Africa region last year.
At the moment, an IFRC Bencom team is engaged with the Benin and Nigerian national Red Cross societies in fighting a Lassa fever epidemic that has also killed over a hundred people in the two countries since December last year.
