Two students in Bawku are reported dead from suspected Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) while 11 are on admission at the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital.

The two deceased were second-year science students of the Bawku senior high school (SHS) and the Bawku Senior High Technical School.

Headmaster for the Bawku Senior High School, Bismark-Simon Kpuli, who confirmed the incident said in the case of the deceased in his school, the student reported to the school’s health centre.

He said the student was given first aid, but later had to be rushed to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital where he was detained but died later of suspected CSM.

The Headmaster for Bawku Senior High Technical School, Bukari Abdulai, who also confirmed the death of one of his student said the death is a blow to them.

The two headmasters want immediate measures had been put in place to prevent such future occurrences, saying frequent health talks would be organized to educate the students on the symptoms of the disease.

They asked the students to sleep in open places where there is good ventilation, so as to forestall a further spread of the disease.

Mr Kpuli expressed concern that the disease had caused so much fear in the students that they could not focus on their studies but troop to health facilities in panic whenever they had a bit of headache, imagined or real.

He appealed to the Upper East Regional and the Bawku Municipal Health Directorates to see it as a matter of urgency and embark on a mass vaccination exercise in schools in the area in order to avoid an outbreak.

Upper East Regional Deputy Director of Health Services in charge of Clinical Care, Dr Razak Dokurugu, said there had been sporadically reported cases of suspected CSM in the Eastern Corridor, covering Bawku, Garu and Pusiga Districts, but laboratory tests had not been carried out to identify the particular strain of the causative agent.

He said the Region had not started mass vaccination yet, but that would be done when the disease posed a threat to the public.

The first main symptoms of CSM are intense headache and stiffness of the neck.

CSM usually occurs and sometimes, an outbreak, in March and April when maximum temperature records more than 40 degrees Celsius.