Abstract
Epidemics of meningococcal disease constitute a major public health challenge in Africa, affecting mostly the 24 countries of the meningitis belt. These epidemics led to a call for a call for a safe, effective and affordable conjugate vaccine against the major serogroup responsible for recent epidemics by leaders of the region. This paper documents experiences with efforts at eliminating epidemic meningitis in the African Region. The meningoccocal serogroup A conjugate vaccine was developed, licensed and offered to more than 235 million people through mass vaccination campaigns in 16 countries since 2010. Future plans include providing the vaccine to the remaining countries in the African Meningitis Belt and, to implement the vaccine into routine national infant immunization programme and to organise catch-up immunization campaigns every 5 years for unvaccinated <5 year-olds who had missed their routine vaccinations. The success of the project is evidenced by the large declines in cases of group A meningococcal disease since 2010, with no cases reported in vaccinated persons across the 16 countries, reflecting the highly effective nature of the vaccine. The successful control of serogroup A meningococcal disease has highlighted the need to tackle other meningococcal serogroups through development of polyvalent conjugate vaccines with the aim of eliminating epidemics of meningococcal meningitis in the African region.
Highlights
The success of the project is evidenced by the large declines in cases of group A meningococcal disease since 2010, with no cases reported in vaccinated persons across the 16 countries, reflecting the highly effective nature of the vaccine
Meningococcal disease is a major public health challenge, with large oubreaks affecting countries of the meningitis belt, which extends from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, and with an estimated total population of 500 million individuals at risk[1,2]
Following the deadly meningitis epidemics of 1995-96, African Ministries of Health appealed to the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners for a solution
Summary
Meningococcal disease is a major public health challenge, with large oubreaks affecting countries of the meningitis belt, which extends from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, and with an estimated total population of 500 million individuals at risk[1,2]. Results: The success of the project is evidenced by the large declines in cases of group A meningococcal disease since 2010, with no cases reported in vaccinated persons across the 16 countries, reflecting the highly effective nature of the vaccine.
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