The Senate on Tuesday identified Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, prisons and detention centres as locations susceptible to the current outbreak of cerebro-spinal meningitis, due to overcrowding and unhygienic conditions common in such places.

It therefore called on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigerian Prison Service, and Nigeria Police to urgently take steps to prevent infections and outbreaks in their premises and camps.

This came as the federal government, through its agencies, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA), and partner have distributed a total of 500,000 doses of Meningitis C vaccines to some of the affected states for immediate outbreak response vaccination.

The lawmakers also directed the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies to work closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF to acquire sufficient vaccines needed to respond to the outbreak which has so far claimed 328 lives with over 2,500 cases.

This is in addition to the execution of a massive sensitisation campaign to raise awareness among the citizenry about the diseases and provide education about its symptoms and actions that can prevent infection.