Meningitis Deaths Set Weekly Record

An upsurge in a meningitis epidemic that doctors thought was under control killed 241 people in the last week, bringing the death toll in Burkina Faso this year to 1,379, official figures showed.

The number of dead was the highest weekly total this year from the disease, which is a seasonal problem in the dry early months of the year in West Africa’s arid Sahel region, south of the Sahara.

Health Ministry officials, who last week said they thought the epidemic had peaked, declined to comment on figures that showed the number of reported cases had jumped by 1,866 over the last week to a total of 9,623 this year.