Government denies meningitis linked to AIDS. (Zambia)

DATELINE: Zambia

Zambia's health ministry discredited new medical reports that the nation's outbreak of meningitis is linked to AIDS.

"The reports are alarmist and based on little, if any, fact. As far as we know, there is no connection between AIDS and meningitis," Dr. Roy Chimba, chief epidemiologist at the ministry headquarters, said.

"If that were true, then it would be right to assume that AIDS is more prevalent in the shanty compounds, since that is where most of the meningitis cases come from. But there is no proof that AIDS is more prevalent in the shanties," he added.

Medical officers in the northern Copperbelt province say …