A team from the World Health Organization (WHO) is in the country to assess the outbreak of Cerebro- Spinal Meningitis (CSM) in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, Minister of Health (MOH) made this known on Thursday when answering an urgent question by Dr Mathew Prempeh, Member of Parliament for Manhyia on the floor of Parliament. He said mass vaccination against CSM was ongoing, explaining that the situation was getting stabilized. Dr Mathew Prempeh asked about the measures the MOH was taking to prevent the perennial deaths caused by CSM in the three regions. Dr Kunbuor said the Ministry had taken measures to manage the perennial epidemics and deaths in the regions including selective preventive vaccination. He said although WHO does not recommend preventive vaccine, the MOH each year procured reasonable quantities of the A and C vaccines for communities at high risk in the belt. Dr Kunbuor stated that the ministry acquired 380,000 of the vaccines for the three regions this year. He noted that surveillance for early detection of cases for effective preventive measures has been institutionalized. Dr Kunbuor said there was no evidence of the disease in the Ashanti Region, but the ministry would cross check and intervene should there be any report. He said laboratory validation was necessary to establish whether a person suffering from disease was a CSM patient. Dr Kunbuor urged parliament to take a look at the various measures that could be adopted to prevent the occurrence of the disease. Mr Ambrose Dery, Member of Parliament for Lawra Nandom asked why only 20,000 people were vaccinated in the area with a population of 120,000 people. Dr Kunbuor said the District Directorate did an assessment of the situation and noticed that the area had not yet reached the alert level. He explained that CSM is an inflammation of the covering of the brain and spinal cord. The commonest cause is a bacterium called Neiseria Meningitides. The bacteria have nine sero-groups, namely A, B, C, D, E29, X, W135, Y and Z. The bacteria normally reside in the nose and throat but sometimes invade the blood system causing the disease, which then spreads by direct contact including respiratory droplets from nose and throat of infected persons or carriers. Source: GNA