Meningococcal Disease News and Research

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New rapid diagnostic tests for Neisseria meningitidis

Over a million people each year, most of them in the "meningitis belt" in Africa, contract bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly infection of tissues that line the brain and spinal cord.

4 Sep 2006

Conjugate vaccines for preventing meningococcal C meningitis and septicaemia

A new systematic review suggests that a certain kind of vaccine may help to protect babies and small children from a devastating killer: meningococcal meningitis.

19 Jul 2006

Snogging quadruples risk of meningitis in teenagers

Intimate kissing with multiple partners almost quadruples a teenager's risk of meningococcal disease, finds a study published online by the British Medical Journal.

19 Feb 2006

New treatment for brucellosis

Concepcion Lecaroz, a researcher from the University of Navarra, has developed a new therapy against brucellosis. This zoonosis - a disease or infection of animals which can be transmitted to humans under natural conditions - annually affects 500,000 people worldwide.

18 Jan 2006

Lives will be saved as early signs of meningitis now identified

Scientists in the UK say they have identified the early signs of meningitis and blood poisoning which should improve detection of the disease and save lives.

11 Jan 2006

Harvard study finds vaccines boost economies of poor countries

Immunization programs in impoverished countries not only save lives, they boost economies, finds a study by researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) published in the current edition of World Economics.

16 Oct 2005

Significant step forward in the search for a vaccine against Group B meningococcal disease

For a long time, doctors and scientists have suspected that Neisseria lactamica, a harmless germ carried mostly by children under the age of five years, is the key to the development of natural immunity to meningococcal meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning).

2 Aug 2005

Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to the nation's public health

Infectious diseases pose a serious threat to the nation's public health. Today, experts addressed key developments to the current and future outlook of infectious diseases, highlighting adolescent immunizations, outbreaks and epidemics of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and new developments in HIV medicine, at a press conference sponsored by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID).

27 Jul 2005

The MeNZB vaccine will work

The New Zealand Ministry of Health followed an internationally accepted process for licensing the MeNZB vaccine.

9 Jun 2005

Health Protection Agency publishes report on the benefits of vaccination to children's health

The Health Protection Agency today publishes its first national report on the current status of the UK’s universal vaccine programmes, which protect children against a range of childhood diseases including measles, mumps, rubella and meningitis.

23 May 2005

Meningitis epidemics driven by the wind

A meningitis epidemic hits West Africa every year, affecting 25 000 to 200 000 people. It has long been known that the timing of this epidemic and its spatial distribution within the “Meningitis Belt”, situated between 10° and 15° North, are closely linked to climatic conditions. Involved in the AMMA programme, IRD and University of Paris-VII researcher produced the first quantified description of this relationship using statistical methods.

5 Apr 2005

FDA licenses Sanofi pasteur vaccine for protection against meningococcal disease

Sanofi pasteur, the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has licensed Menactra (Meningococcal [Groups A, C, Y and W-135] Polysaccharide Diphtheria Toxoid Conjugate Vaccine) for protection against meningococcal disease in adolescents and adults aged 11-55 years.

17 Jan 2005

Pilgrimage to Mecca comes with a few medical risks

The Hajj or Haj is the Pilgrimage to Mecca (or, "Makkah") and is the fifth of the "Five Pillars of Islam". Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. Later this month about three million Muslims will gather for this major pilgrimage. But two doctors in this week's BMJ warn that the Hajj carries considerable health risks if the pilgrim is unprepared.

13 Jan 2005

ID Biomedical to supply meningitis C vaccine to the Canadian government

The Canadian government has retained an option to purchase additional product from the Company in the third and final year of the contract. The total value of the contract, including the third year option, could total approximately $30 million to ID Biomedical.

14 Sep 2004