CHRONICAL OF A DECLARED EPIDEMIC OF MENIN GOCOCCAL MENINGITIS (GOMA, ZAIRE, AUGUST 1994)

The authors relate their experience controlling an epidemic of meningi tis which broke out in the refugee camps of the Goma region, in northe rn Zaire, after the dramatic events which had happened in Rwanda in Ap ril and lune 1994. Out of the 348 cases oi purulent meningitis diagnos ed by the Bioforce team, meningococcal etiology was confirmed 327 time s. The isolated meningococci were ail of the serogroup A, serotype A; 4; P 1,9. They were resistant to streptomycin and to sulphamides. The epidemic lasted one month, touched people of ail ages and spread progr essively to all the camps. The epidemic surveillance set up meant hat vaccination was carried out very quickly and the epidemic brought rapi dly under control, even if other factors did intervene. All those call ed upon to intervene in such a context should be made aware of the int erest of the basic triad to fight these epidemics: rapid vaccination, treatment of cases with oily chloramphenicol and bio-epidemiological s urveillance.