New vaccine promises end of devastating meningitis epidemics in Africa

Scientists are optimistic that a new meningitis vaccine will end the risk of devastating major epidemics; the new vaccine protects against meningitis A, the deadliest form of the disease.

The newly developed vaccine has been tested on 12 to 23- month-olds in Mali and Gambia, and has proved to be safe, without side effects and 20 times more powerful than existing vaccines.

WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan says the study is important as it brings real hope that the lives of thousands of children, teenagers and young adults will be saved by immunization.

Every decade or so large scale outbreaks of meningitis occur in the so-called "meningitis belt," which stretches from Senegal and the Gambia in the West to Ethiopia in the East, with an at-risk population of 430 million people.

The last major epidemic in 1996-97, killed 25,000 people and 250,000 people were affected.

In the first six months of this year there were almost 50,000 cases of meningitis reported in Africa raising concern that another major outbreak was imminent.

Dr. Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) says Sub-Saharan Africa is the only place on earth where this occurs with such regularity and the results offer for the first time a new vaccine that was developed specifically for the area which, if introduced large scale, could bring an end to such epidemics.

Current immunization offers protection for only two years while the new vaccine could last up to 10 years, and with a cut-price of 40 cents a dose, it will be far less expensive than current vaccines.

The new vaccine was developed after a request for help to the WHO from a number of African health ministers following the last epidemic.

Experts say mass vaccination campaigns would target people between the ages of 1 and 29.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2001 enabled the MVP partnership, between the WHO and a Seattle-based non- profit organization, PATH, to be started with a 70 million dollars donation, working with the Serum Institute of India Limited (SIL) and the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), which provided vital technology.

Further tests are now planned in Mali, The Gambia and in India and hopefully the new drug will be available at the end of next year in Burkina Faso and then rolled out across the Continent to eventually reach around 350 million people by 2020.

Meningitis is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.

Even with antibiotic treatment, at least 10% of patients die, with up to 20% left with permanent problems, such as mental retardation, deafness and epilepsy.