When six-year old Mohammed Waziga arrived at a health centre in northwest Nigeria complaining of joint pains and drowsiness, he was given an injection and sent home without any concerns.
However his suffering grew worse, and his family rushed him to a different facility in Zamfara state, where he was diagnosed with meningitis, marking yet another case in an outbreak which has killed more than 800 people so far this year in the north.
"We are grateful to Allah that he got better," his grandmother Zainab said, sitting next to Mohammed who was lying on a makeshift bed under a shea tree because there was no room for him in any of the wards.
"He keeps asking me when we will go home, and I worry again that I will lose him."
Thousands of meningitis cases have been reported by the health ministry in the northern states since November last year, in Nigeria's worst outbreak of the disease since it killed more than 2000 people in 2009.
Meningitis is the inflammation of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord, which can be caused by viral or bacterial infections. It spreads mainly through kisses, sneezes, coughs and in close living quarters.
Nigeria has launched a mass vaccination campaign and started conducting house-to-house searches to identify those afflicted for treatment, as the state and aid agencies race to contain the surge in infections in recent months.
In mainly Muslim Zamfara, home to over 3.2million people and known for its strict religious Sharia code, health centres are full to the brim, with makeshift wards made of bamboo set up outside of hospital grounds for sick and recovering patients.
"Initially the response from the state government was not appropriate," said Bature Mannir, secretary of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
State governor Abdulaziz Yari was reported by local media last month as saying the outbreak was God's punishment for sin.
"However things changed and the [response] is yielding a very good result as the number of cases have drastically reduced," Mannir added.
The state government is distributing vaccines and drugs while Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control are trying to control the outbreak. At least 1.3million vaccines have been acquired, 500000 provided by the World Health Organisation.
Sitting in a clinic where her two sons, aged 13 and four, were recovering from meningitis, Zainab Abdulazeez stared at the empty bed of a child who died during the night. "I cried and cried ... it could have been my children."
Nigeria races to control outbreak of meningitis
When six-year old Mohammed Waziga arrived at a health centre in northwest Nigeria complaining of joint pains and drowsiness, he was given an injection and sent home without any concerns.
However his suffering grew worse, and his family rushed him to a different facility in Zamfara state, where he was diagnosed with meningitis, marking yet another case in an outbreak which has killed more than 800 people so far this year in the north.
"We are grateful to Allah that he got better," his grandmother Zainab said, sitting next to Mohammed who was lying on a makeshift bed under a shea tree because there was no room for him in any of the wards.
"He keeps asking me when we will go home, and I worry again that I will lose him."
Thousands of meningitis cases have been reported by the health ministry in the northern states since November last year, in Nigeria's worst outbreak of the disease since it killed more than 2000 people in 2009.
Meningitis is the inflammation of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord, which can be caused by viral or bacterial infections. It spreads mainly through kisses, sneezes, coughs and in close living quarters.
Nigeria has launched a mass vaccination campaign and started conducting house-to-house searches to identify those afflicted for treatment, as the state and aid agencies race to contain the surge in infections in recent months.
In mainly Muslim Zamfara, home to over 3.2million people and known for its strict religious Sharia code, health centres are full to the brim, with makeshift wards made of bamboo set up outside of hospital grounds for sick and recovering patients.
"Initially the response from the state government was not appropriate," said Bature Mannir, secretary of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
State governor Abdulaziz Yari was reported by local media last month as saying the outbreak was God's punishment for sin.
"However things changed and the [response] is yielding a very good result as the number of cases have drastically reduced," Mannir added.
The state government is distributing vaccines and drugs while Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control are trying to control the outbreak. At least 1.3million vaccines have been acquired, 500000 provided by the World Health Organisation.
Sitting in a clinic where her two sons, aged 13 and four, were recovering from meningitis, Zainab Abdulazeez stared at the empty bed of a child who died during the night. "I cried and cried ... it could have been my children."
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