Tailor-Made Meningitis Vaccine Wipes Out Disease In Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is the continent's "meningitis belt" no more thanks to the efforts of a global team of scientists, drugmakers, and philantrophists who created a tailor-made and affordable vaccine against the deadly disease.

"We have not seen a single case among vaccinated populations," said Marie Pierre-Preziosi, Meningitis Vaccine Project (M.V.P.) director, "and transmission has stopped."

Victory of the region, which stretches from Senegal to Ethiopia, against the disease can be attributed to the M.V.P., which is set to close after rolling out a special vaccine barely in 2010. M.V.P., a partnership between the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) and Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (P.A.T.H.) pioneered in what may be a model for handling infectious diseases in developing countries, Reuters wrote.

MenAfriVac, produced by the generic drugmaker Serum Institute of India and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was tested, put on trial, and deployed in record time, saving thousands of lives from the "A" strain of meningitis in just a few years. Meningococcal meningitis, which cause severe brain damage, deafness, epilepsy or necrosis and, if untreated, death in 50 percent of cases, has infected 250,000 and killed over 25,000 in 1996 to 1997 in what was considered as one of Africa's worst recorded outbreaks. In 2008 to 2009, an epidemic in Nigeria resulted to 56,000, almost three times the number of Ebola cases in West Africa.

The W.H.O. authorized MenAfriVac on Friday to be included in routine child immunizations in Africa.

The single-strain vaccine comes with a price tag of only 50 U.S. cents a shot, compared to its expensive predecessors which target four strains, A, C, Y and W-135.

"African health officials told us: 'Don't come with a vaccine we cannot afford, because that would not be a solution'," Pierre-Preziosi said.

MenAfriVac is the first vaccine to be made especially for Africa and does not need constant refrigeration considering the region's hot climate.

Since its introduction in Burkina Faso in 2010, over 217 million people in 15 countries have received the vaccine.

Mass vaccination campaigns will continue this year in Ethiopia and in four new countries: Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, South Sudan.

Next year, Burundi, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania will be the seven last African countries to hold such campaigns.