200 meningitis cases during Haj

200 meningitis cases during Haj

RIYADH (AFP): Saudi Arabia's health ministry denied on Wednesday there was an epidemic of meningitis in the kingdom after nearly 200 people had been diagnosed with the illness since the annual Muslim pilgrimage, or Haj, last month.

A ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency said pilgrims coming from abroad who were carrying vaccination papers but who had not been properly vaccinated had been diagnosed with the illness.

"The number of cases registered up to the morning of April 11 is not quite 200," the ministry said, adding that "people coming from abroad to perform the pilgrimage were the origin of the microbe."

"The number of recorded cases ... cannot be considered an epidemic," the ministry said.