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Continued from page 19- Burkina Faso: Meningitis
Epidemics in Vaccinated Areas
been immunized.
"[Health researchers] are currently collecting information
so as to identify the factors explaining the recurrence of
the epidemic in districts where populations have been
vaccinated", Ousmane Badolo, head of the epidemiologic
surveillance department at the ministry of health, told
IRIN.
Vaccination campaigns target people between 2 to 30
years old; according to the ministry of health, 80 to 90
percent of the victims of meningitis belong to that age
group.
A total of 714 people have died since 1 January out of
7,184 cases.
Several different bacteria can cause meningitis which is
an inflammation of the protective membranes covering
the central nervous system. The Neisseria sero-group is
one of the most important to watch because it often leads
to epidemics, experts say.
Badolo, the epidemiologist, said that health research
teams from the UN World Health Organization and USbased
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have
come to Burkina Faso to investigate. "This is the first
time that such research is being conducted," Badolo said,
adding that at this stage he could only guess why the
vaccination programmes have not worked.
"Perhaps it is because of population M displacement," he
said, "for instance in gold mining areas people are often
coming and going."
The health researchers will focus their work on the
districts of Réo in the central west of the country, Boulsa
in the central north, Titao in the north and in Sig-nonghin
a district in the north of the capital Ouagadougou.
The populations in each of those four districts were
vaccinated last year yet each has reached epidemic
thresholds.
A total of five out of the country's 55 districts have
reached the epidemic threshold and 14 others are on alert.
Meanwhile, 3.5 million people have been vaccinated this
year out of a population of 14 million. The government
said it is in the process of procuring a million more
vaccines with the help of UN Children's Agency
UNICEF.
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations ]
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804110048.html
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Africa: New Meningitis
Vaccine Nears Debut
12 March 2009
Dakar — A new vaccine that promises to eradicate
meningitis in Africa will be rolled out in a mass
campaign in West Africa this year, according to the UN
World Health Organization (WHO).
Twenty-five million doses of the meningococcal A, or
MenA, vaccine are currently in production in India and
the drug is expected to be introduced in Burkina Faso late
2009.
"This is the beginning of the end of the disease," said
Mark LaForce, the director of the Meningitis Vaccine
Project (MVP), an initiative of WHO and the non-profit
PATH that has been developing the vaccine since 2003.
The vaccine currently used in the region spanning from
Senegal to Ethiopia - called the 'meningitis belt' for its
vulnerability to deadly outbreaks - offers at most two
years of protection, according to MVP.
While the disease is more deadly in the meningitis belt
than anywhere else in the world, there have been no
prevention vaccines for the strain found in Africa- until
now, according to clinical trials with MenA.
Recent studies with patients age one to 29 in India, Mali,
and The Gambia have shown that the new vaccine will
provide long-term protection. Lead researcher LaForce
has said the drug "will allow the elimination of the
meningococcal [meningitis] epidemics that have afflicted
the continent [Africa] for more than 100 years."
Months away from the vaccine's US$29-million donorfinanced
debut in three countries - Burkina Faso, Mali
and Niger - LaForce told IRIN the deadly bacteria that
attack the spinal cord and brain lining cannot be wiped
out overnight.
"Look at polio and how long it took to eradicate that. We
are looking at 10 years at least [for eradication]," he said.
More than 45 years after the polio vaccine was licensed,
there were still more than 1,600 infections worldwide in
2008, according to WHO - down from 350,000 cases 20
years ago.
LaForce told IRIN the MenA vaccination campaign's
goal is to reach "herd immunity", in which if at least 70
percent of the population is immunised, then the entire
population is protected.
When asked if people who might refuse vaccinations
could thwart herd immunity, LaForce said the response
Continued on page 21
-20- Traditional African Clinic April 2009