BUJUMBURA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Burundi is set to immunize over seven million citizens, equivalent to 77 percent of its total population, against meningitis in December, the Burundian health minister said on Monday.
An immunization campaign against meningitis will take place nationwide from Dec. 4 to Dec. 13, where Burundian citizens aged between one year and 30 years will be immunized, said Thaddee Ndikumana, Burundian Minister of Public Health and AIDS Control, during a preparatory meeting of the campaign in Ngozi province, northern Burundi.
He requested the administration, security forces and stakeholders in the health sector to contribute to the forthcoming immunization campaign.
The last immunization campaign against meningitis in Burundi took place in 1992, according to the ministry of health.
The central African country is one of the 26 countries on the extended meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa that has the highest rates of the disease, according to World Health Organization.
