An experiment in the prevention of meningococcal meningitis in Nigeria.

In a population of approximately 100,000, 99% of the population was treated with at least one dose of sulphadimidine snuff and 94% with three or four doses over a period of two days. A dramatic reduction in the incidence of cerebrospinal meningitis followed immediately thereafter in the treated population, while the incidence continued to rise in adjacent comparable districts which had not been treated.