Meningitis Vaccination campaigns Evaluated

EnAfriVac vaccine said to have registered a high success level during first phase of campaigns.

The use of the new vaccine, MenAfriVac, was lauded for its effectiveness against meningitis A. A meeting of public health experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, AMP, PATH, CDC/Atlanta, GAVI and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation met in Douala, recently, to assess the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns against meningitis (meningococcus A) in 2010 and 2011 involving the introduction of MenAfriVac, pre-qualified for use by WHO in 2010.

The meeting, which purposed to draw lessons learned in order to better organise the next phase of vaccination campaigns, was also occasion to share and enrich experiences from those who had participated in the initial phases of vaccination campaigns and to seek recommendations for the next vaccination phases and countries. Participants came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Chad, Guinea-Conakry and Cameroon.

Dr. Charlotte Faty-Ndiaye, WHO Representative in Cameroon, said the protection of the population against deadly epidemics constitutes a major challenge. "More than 430 million people who live in the 25 countries ranging from Senegal in the West to Ethiopia in the East of the continent bore the brunt of all ills related to meningitis, but there is hope given the use of MenAfriVac."

The vaccine was introduced in phases between 2010 and 2011 in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. At least 54 million people have been vaccinated. It registered resounding successes, with no case of the disease registered among all the individuals who received the vaccine. With this success, WHO is calling on governments to finance the manufacture of ACWXY against meningitis by the Indian Serum Vaccine Institute.

For Cameroon, the first phase of vaccination campaigns was carried out in the Far North and North Regions from December 6-12, 2011, during which 4,015,391 people of between 1 and 29 years old were vaccinated with MenAfriVac. The 2nd phase will take place this year in the Adamawa and North West Regions. Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Health recalled that the effort is in line with the "Yaounde Declaration", in which Cameroon with other African countries in 2008 agreed to eliminate meningitis said to constitute a public health problem on the continent.

MenAfriVac, whose protection can span 10 years and said to be more efficient against meningitis A, was developed with the collaboration of the Meningitis Vaccines Project (MVP) and the WHO. The aim is to reach out to the populations in all the 25 countries by 2015.