Meningitis kills hundreds in Africa

Some 3m doses of the new vaccine will be sent to 21 countries

At least 200 people have died in a meningitis epidemic in the Nigerian state of Zamfara in the past three days.

Women, children and middle-aged men are mostly affected by the epidemic.

A meningitis epidemic has also been reported in Burkina Faso, where at least 58 people have been killed and hundreds of others infected.

Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that millions of people across Africa are to be vaccinated against a new killer strain of meningitis.

Isolation camp

The governor of Zamfara state, Mammam Bawa, said that medical teams with vaccines would be sent to the four councils affected by the epidemic.

Mr Bawa said in a broadcast that tents had already been erected for an isolation camp where patients will be treated to prevent the epidemic spreading.

The BBC's Ibrahim Dossara in Zamfara says that some rural people are not getting vaccinated because they do not believe it protects them.

In Burkina Faso, the health ministry said on Tuesday that 396 cases have been registered.

Officials have urged people to go for free consultations in the nearest health centre to check for the first symptoms of meningitis, which include fever, headaches and a stiffening of the neck.

Last week, the WHO said it had shipped an initial batch of 100,000 vaccines to Burkina Faso.

The decision followed fears of a possible epidemic across what health chiefs describe as Africa's meningitis belt, which stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia.

The vaccine will protect against the more common meningitis strains A and C and also the virulent W135 strain.

This strain of the disease was found in sporadic cases on the continent last year.

It is believed to have claimed the lives of 1,743 people in Burkina Faso last year.