From 1 January to 28 January 2007, the Ministry of Health of the Government of Southern Sudan has reported 666 suspected cases including 70 deaths (case-fatality rate: 10.5%) from seven out of ten states in Southern Sudan. Some of these cases were also reported as early as October 2006. The population in the affected states includes returnees as well as displaced people living in areas of difficult access and disperse population settlements. A number of cerebrospinal fluid specimens have tested positive for Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A by culture as well as by latex test.

The Federal Ministry of Health through the State Ministry of Health of South Sudan has rapidly responded to the situation. A task force, set up both at the federal level as well as at the state level, is coordinating the public health emergency response operations to these small multifocal meningitis epidemics in the southern Sudan. WHO Country office in Sudan is fully involved in extending its technical support to the FMOH for control and management of these mutifocal epidemics in the southern Sudan.

Several field investigations have been conducted through mobilization of rapid response teams, case management has been standardized in all the affected states, community mobilization and health education are ongoing and surveillance has been strengthened to ensure early case detection and monitoring of the epidemic. A mass vaccination campaign targeting the high-risk population in Warrab state, one of the most affected states during this outbreak, has already started targeting over 45,000 people. The WHO Country Office has provided the government with injection materials, oily chloramphenicol, transport media and rapid test kits to control this outbreak.

Map: Distribution of meningitis cases and deaths in southern Sudan from 15 October 2006 to 28 January 2007