Niger's meningitis deaths this year top 1,000

NIAMEY, Niger (Reuters) -- Meningitis has killed 1,007 people in Niger so far this year, although officials said the epidemic -- an annual occurrence -- was now drawing to a close.

Figures released by the Central African country's catastrophe management unit showed 13,900 cases of the disease were recorded in the first 34 weeks of the year, largely in the west of the country, including the capital Niamey, which was one of the hardest hit areas.

Meningitis strikes hardest in the early months of the year across Africa's arid Sahel region.

The disease killed 488 people in Niger in 1999 and 301 in 1998. An epidemic blamed on faulty vaccine from neighboring Nigeria killed around 3,000 people in 1995.

The official figures also showed that 346 people in Niger died from malaria between January and the start of September.

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