There has been a dramatic drop in the number of cases of meningitis A in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso following the vaccination of nearly 20 million people against the disease, according to the Meningitis Vaccine Project.
An effort to vaccinate populations throughout the meningitis belt - stretching from Ethiopia to Senegal - could save more than 140,000 lives over the next decade and spare another 280,000 people from serious permanent disabilities, such as brain damage and profound hearing loss, project officials said on Thursday. AllAfrica spoke with Dr. Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project, about the effort.
How significant are the project's findings so far?
The information that we have so far suggests that this may be a big deal. It's like the strategy and the vaccine has interrupted transmission of the organism in the population and so the organism really has nowhere to go so it dies out. That's what appears to have happened in these three countries.
We'll know more next year, and the year after and the year after that, as we continue our surveillance activities. But right now this seems to be reproducing quite nicely.
The strategy was to immunize just before the dry season or right after the rains [when most meningitis epidemics occur]. January starts the real dry period. January until late May or early June.
How has it been working with African health ministries on the vaccine issue?
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The ministries of health - at least in the experience that we've had with them for 10 years - really are anxious to get rid of this problem.
So acceptance of this particular [vaccine] has not been an issue for two reasons: One: It's priced at less than 50 cents a dose.
Two: It appears to be very effective.
Those two criteria - affordability and effectiveness - are two essential criteria for a major public health benefit, which is what we're seeing right now.
How was the vaccine developed?
We became a virtual vaccine company for this particular product because the criteria that we wished to follow - the issue of affordability and openness as far as the product was concerned - was somewhat difficult to sell to the large pharmaceutical companies.
Therefore, we decided to strike out in many ways on our own, by identifying sources of raw material, identifying new intellectual property and then finding a vaccine manufacturer (the Serum Institute of India) who would be willing to join forces with us.
It is impossible to say how important the collaboration with the Serum Institute of India has been.
What next?
The bottom line is there is a lot of work that has to be done over the next five years for this to get rolled out in the proper fashion.
There's monetary needs, there are funding needs, and there are important needs and concerns of surveillance systems that will be able to monitor quite carefully what outcomes or what will occur after the introduction of this process.
View an abstract of the report on Health Affairs.
