Ten people have been confirmed dead and two are hospitalised following an outbreak of meningitis in the Yaw Bronya farming community in the Ashanti Region, 250km north of the capital Accra. Local authorities have closed down schools and banned all public gatherings. Health workers from Accra have travelled to Yaw Bronya and are on standby to attend to new cases.

Ghana is a country in the “meningitis belt' stretching across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia and epidemics can be expected to break out anywhere especially during the drier months. The germ is spread by 'droplet' infection from person to person. Vaccination with the quadrivalent vaccine will provide protection and it is wise for all travellers to any of these countries to be immunised but note that the Meningitis C vaccine widely used now in Australasia is insufficient to provide protection for international travellers


http://www.tmvc.com.au/healthalerts.asp?UnqID=0.3298436&HealthAlertID=758

Source: Travel Doctor TMVC