Nearly 16,000 cases of meningitis, including 1,670 deaths, have been reported from four African countries in the last two months, the World Health Organization ( WHO) said on Friday.

Currently, WHO and other organizations are supporting a vaccination campaign in the four countries, namely Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Uganda, to contain the outbreak, the UN agency said in a statement.

Around 1.5 million people in the four affected counties have been targeted in the mass vaccination campaign, the WHO said.

However, the affected areas are known to host large numbers of returnees, as well as displaced populations not easily accessible and dispersed population settlements, which have made the vaccination efforts more difficult.

Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord.

Transmitted by coughing or sneezing, the disease can cause brain damage and deafness, and kills between 5 and 10 percent of those infected.

Source: Xinhua