Liberian health authorities said they were treating the recent mysterious outbreak in the southeastern Sinoe County as meningitis epidemic.

Health minister Bernice Dahn said in Monrovia that initial report from the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) on the cluster of deaths in Sinoe indicated that they were dealing with a probable outbreak of meningitis.

She explained that CDC tested specimens from four patients for 29 different diseases, and that results for 28 of them came back negative, while the meningitis test proved positive.

“As a public health measure, we are taking that and we are working on it so that we do not have further spread...,” she declared.

Available specimens

She added that the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), had been instructed to do a meningitis test on all other available specimens.

The disease, which has since spread to two other counties, was said to have claimed 13 lives.

The Ministry of Health said it had recorded a total of 31 cases, from the three counties due to the disease that broke out late last month.

Ms Dahn said that Sinoe County accounted for 27 cases and 10 deaths, while Montserrado County recorded two cases and two deaths, and Grand Bassa two cases and one death.

The brain

Meningitis is an acute inflammation of the protective membrane covering the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by both bacteria and viruses, as well as fungi, parasites and amoeba.

A bacterial or viral infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord usually causes the swelling.

However, injuries, cancer, certain drugs, and other types of infections also can cause meningitis.

The most common symptoms of the disease are fever, headache and neck stiffness. Other symptoms manifest in the form of confusion or altered consciousness, vomiting and inability to tolerate light or loud noise.

Present cluster

Reports indicate victims of the present cluster have exhibited some of these symptoms.

Liberia shares border with Guinea, one of the countries lying on the infamous meningitis belt.

Alongside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea were home to the world’s largest Ebola epidemic in 2014 which claimed over 11,000 lives.