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Eradication of Hib meningitis : victory for Uganda
[mis à jour le 12 March 2008 à 17h00]
The GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccinations and Immunisation) has announced the eradication of Hib meningitis in Uganda among children under the age of 5. This real “tour de force” has been achieved through an ambitious vaccination programme in this country, which is located in the heart of Africa’s “meningitis belt”.
Between 2002 and 2006, the Ugandan government managed to distribute 16.5 million doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine to all children under 5. With the financial support of the GAVI Alliance, the local authorities opted for a pentavalent or “5 in 1” vaccine which included the Hib vaccine along with other valencies against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and hepatitis B.
The results are indisputable: the incidence of Hib bacterial meningitis fell by 85% in the first 4 years. And it has finally “settled” at zero just 12 months later! This result means that every year almost 30,000 cases of Hib and 5,000 deaths of children under 5 can now be avoided.
“The introduction of the Hib vaccine has completely changed the epidemiology (of the disease) in Uganda, thanks to (its) eradication as a public health problem”, Dr Kekitiinwa, a paediatrician at the Mulago Hospital in Kampala, is pleased to announce. The irony of the story is that the Hib vaccine has taken almost 15 years to reach developing countries, although it has been widely used in the West since as far back as 1991.
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