Meningitis – Africa awaits a new vaccine

Meningitis epidemics are regular if unwelcome visitors to Africa but now officials from the Meningitis Vaccine Project (the MVP) are reporting promising results from a new phase II clinical trial. This relates to a new candidate vaccine of the conjugate type.

Effective, safe and costing only 0.4 dollars per dose, this new vaccine could be introduced in Africa within 3 to 4 years. Directed against the N. Meningitidis A meningococcal strain, “it could enable us to put an end to the epidemics that have ravaged Africa for more than 100 years”, points out MVP director Dr Marc Laforce.

Experts talk of an African meningitis belt – an area stretching from west to east, from Senegal to Ethiopia. “During the dry season”, the WHO tells us, “because of the dust-laden winds and the high number of respiratory tract infections contracted, local immunity of the pharynx is diminished, thus increasing the risk of meningitis”. In fact, in 1996 the WHO reported over 250,000 cases of meningitis and 25,000 deaths. The most deadly meningitis epidemic ever!

At present healthcare professionals are using a vaccine that gives immunity for only 3 to 5 years. A vaccine which, according to the WHO, cannot be used on children under 2 years old. According to Dr Laforce, “the population from the ages of 1 to 29 could be immunised by receiving a single dose of the new vaccine. Results show that we could create a collective immunity, as this would block transmission of the bacterium. This would mean that the protection would be extended to those who were not vaccinated”. Clinical trials of phases 2 and 3 are planned in Mali and another trial will be launched this summer in India. The license for this new vaccine belongs to the Serum Institute of India Limited..