More than 140,000 people in Africa contracted meningitis this year, resulting in 15,000 deaths - the highest numbers ever recorded in one year on the continent, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some 95 percent of the cases and deaths were in the so-called meningitis belt, a region stretching from Ethiopia in the east to Senegal on the west coast.

WHO said it was launching a major initiative to detect and control the epidemic. Agency specialists will be sent to five priority countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta will also take part.

Meningitis is a highly contagious disease caused by a bacteria or virus that inflames the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. It causes severe headaches, fever, vomiting, and sometimes convulsions, coma and death.

It can be cured with antibiotics.