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