Meningitis toll rising in Burkina Faso

Health officials in Burkina Faso say that more than 600 people have died so far this year in an outbreak of meningitis.

Last week the authorities said they would start offering free vaccines and health care to fight the disease, but World Health Organization officials say there are just 25,000 doses of vaccine for this particular strain of the disease in the world, and none are available in Burkina Faso.

Last year, meningitis claimed almost 2,000 lives out of some 13,000 cases reported in Burkina Faso.

The worst outbreak in recent years was in 1996, when 4,000 people died.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service