One Disease Down In Africa, A Lot More To Go

One of the most exciting health-related achievements in Africa in recent times has been the development of new Meningitis vaccine that has the potential to eradicate devastating epidemics in Africa's Meningitis belt. At the opening of the annual WHO Executive Board Meeting, Margaret Chan, the Director General of WHO represented this fact. She mentioned the contribution of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in funding the research and praised the African scientists and scholars who helped develop this life-saving vaccine when large pharmaceutical companies backed off because the project would not result in big profits. This low cost vaccine was produced in less than a decade which is a rare incident in the African region. Some of the countries including, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger already started using the vaccine but many of them will not be able to use it due to lack of funds, said Chan.

The lack of funds is also delaying the progress of other vaccines including, AIDS, Diarrhoea, Pneumonia and Tuberculosis which have the ability to claim thousands of lives in Africa each year. Chan calls for serious attention toward this issue and comments that governments and large corporations need to invest more in the development of life-saving vaccines in order to change the health scenario of the African continent.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: VOICE OF AMERICA

New Meningitis Vaccine

A new, affordable meningitis vaccine is reaching millions of people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger starting this week. PATH and the World Health Organization, (with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), developed MenAfriVac, the first vaccine to provide sustained protection against the meningitis strain that causes most outbreaks of bacterial meningitis in Africa. More than 450 million people are at risk of contracting this particular strain and it can also explode in large epidemics. The disease kills one in ten people who get sick, and leaves a quarter of survivors deaf or with other severe disabilities. But now millions of people have a better chance at a healthier and brighter future by getting this lifesaving vaccine, which comes at an affordable cost – just less than US $0.50 per dose.

-Clare Ortblad

SOURCE: Gates Foundation Blog

New, Cheap, Meningitis Vaccine Could Prevent Epidemic in Africa

A new meningitis vaccine, costing a fraction of the prices charged by big pharma, could help prevent epidemics in Africa, transforming the way doctors fight outbreaks of the deadly disease.

MenAfriVac protects against type A meningitis, which is attributed to more than 90% of outbreaks in Africa. It was approved by WHO last week, meaning that other agencies, like UNICEF, can now buy it for countries. It costs about 50 cents per dose.

Meningitis is a highly contagious disease which results in a serious infection of the thin lining surrounding the brain and the spinal cord. It can lead to severe brain damage and is fatal in 50 percent of cases if untreated.

The epidemic strikes more than 25 countries in sub- Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east. Last year there were 80,000 cases including more than 4,000 deaths. Children and young adults are most at risk.

MenAfriVac will be launched in Burkina Faso on December 6 through collaboration with the WHO. Everyone aged 1–29 — the group hit hardest by the disease, numbering 12.5 million people, will be vaccinated. The program will then reach out to Mali and Niger, which will each vaccinate 4 million people in the same age bracket. The WHO hopes to complete this project that will vaccinate 450 million people in 25 African countries by 2015.

- Martina Georgieva

SOURCE: The Guardian

New meningitis vaccine to be unleashed in Africa this fall

Yesterday, The New York Times reported on a new meningitis vaccine, which costs only $.50 a treatment, that is due for mass distribution in Africa this fall. The vaccine is meant to cheaply, but effectively, target the epidemic that plagues Sub-Saharan Africa every year. The region is home to the "meningitis belt," 25 countries from Ethiopia to Senegal that have the highest rates of meningitis infections in the world. Between 25,000 and 200,000 people are effected by the outbreak every year, most of whom are children. Nearly 10% of infected people die within 48 hours of contracting the disease, with another 20% suffering from brain damage or hearing loss. Seasonal winds spread the highly contagious disease, with most of the cases occurring between February and May.

However, this new vaccine may provide a way for financially strapped African governments to provide an effective solution to the disease. The vaccine was developed under the co-operative efforts of the World Health Organization and PATH, a non-profit based in Seattle that develops treatments for diseases in third world countries. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded five years of research and trials for the vaccine as well. Meningitis is highly preventable with proper vaccination- many US schools require students to be immunized. The vaccine is due for it's first major distribution in Burkina-Faso this October. However, the number of countries who have access to the medication will be determined by how much donors are able to give.

-Matthew Thwaites

SOURCES: "Africa: In a Meningitis Hotbed, a New Vaccine at a Price Governments Can Afford"-NY Times, "West African meningitis epidemics driven by the wind"-Medical News Today, "Meningococcal meningitis"-WHO

Recent Meningitis Epidemic

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 2,000 people have died since January from meningitis. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are currently working on their biggest vaccination campaign ever to solve this epidemic, vaccinating about 7 million people. The disease is a bacterial infection of the brain membrane, and if left untreated, it has a very high mortality rate. As the world focuses on solving the problem of HIV/AIDS and malaria, it's important to remember that there are other deadly diseases out there that need our attention.
Source: DoctorsWithoutBorders.org