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Pilgrims Urged To Get Checked WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) – After hundreds of meningitis cases have been diagnosed in Muslims who just returned from Hajj in countries as distant as France and Niger, health officials urged all pilgrims and those who have come in close contact with them to get checked. In France, three pilgrims died and five other pilgrims, friends and relatives have been diagnosed with the disease since March 28. In Kano State in Nigeria, at least 20 people have died from the viral disease in the last week, State Health Commissioner Mansur Kabir said Monday. The outbreak was first detected last Tuesday and the final toll is expected to be higher, Kabir said. "As soon as we received the news of the outbreak, we sent a consignment of vaccines to the affected areas to check its spread," he added. The Saudi Arabian Health Ministry denied on Wednesday that there was an epidemic of meningitis in the kingdom, even after nearly 200 people had been diagnosed with the illness since the Hajj last month. The kingdom blamed the outbreak on pilgrims who had come from abroad. All pilgrims from abroad are required to carry their vaccination papers, but the kingdom suspects that many “had not been properly vaccinated.” The Health Ministry said it had diagnosed some pilgrims from abroad as carrying the disease. "The number of cases registered up to the morning of April 11 is not quite 200," the Ministry said, adding that "people coming from abroad to perform the pilgrimage were the origin of the microbe." "The number of recorded cases ... cannot be considered an epidemic," the Ministry said. "The origin of this illness is not in Mecca or Saudi Arabia. Only 11 cases having been registered in the kingdom in the first 10 months of the Muslim year of 1420," which finished on April 5, "which is a low average compared to other countries.” "The number of cases started to increase with the arrival of the pilgrims, reaching its peak during the last week of March, with 56 cases," the statement said, not specifying whether anyone had died from the illness. The Ministry said, "The situation had stabilized," with just 18 cases of meningitis having being recorded in the period from April 6-11. "The kingdom strictly applies rules of prevention against meningitis ... and carries out compulsory vaccinations on all pilgrims not carrying medical certificates verifying they have been vaccinated" upon arrival, it added. Vaccinations had been given to 335,547 foreign pilgrims at ports, airports and land border crossings during the pilgrimage, which ended in mid-March. A record 1.267 million Muslims traveled to Saudi Arabia from around the world this year, notably due to a restriction on the number of Saudis who could repeat Hajj and an increase in pilgrim numbers from Southeast Asia. It is not clear where the disease started before reaching the Hajj. In Niger, a meningitis epidemic broke out in February, and more than 2,800 cases have been diagnosed. In March 132 people had been killed by the disease, while another 118 had died in the first two weeks of this month. A 1995 epidemic in Niger, the world's second poorest country, left nearly 4,000 dead out of 42,000 diagnosed cases of the disease. Sudan also reported this week that meningitis had claimed 206 lives across the country over the last four months. The Al Ayam daily quoted a Health Ministry official as stating that they were among 2,647 people infected with the disease. The official, Ismail Kamil, said, however, that the disease is much less widespread this year compared with last year, when 33,000 people were infected. Kamil said additional funds were needed to pay for 13 million doses of meningitis vaccine. So far the Ministry has enough to buy only 700,000 doses, a problem similar to that of Niger. Meningitis is an inflammation of the tissues that cover the brain and spinal cord that can kill very quickly if not recognized and treated in time. Its symptoms include fever, vomiting, severe headaches and stomachaches, a stiff neck, aversion to bright light, constant drowsiness, cold hands and feet, rapid breathing, and pain in the joints and muscles. One in 10 people carry the bacteria that cause the disease in the back of their nose and throat without realizing. It is usually harmless, but if it overcomes the body’s immune defenses and pushes through the lining of the nose and throat into the bloodstream, it can be fatal.
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