With the COVID-19 pandemic delaying meningitis vaccination campaigns for more than 50 million young people in Africa, the region faces a greater threat of outbreaks of type A meningitis, which has been almost eliminated on the continent. In a race against time, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have presented a roadmap to prevent outbreaks of bacterial meningitis until 2030, urging countries to implement it temporarily before the meningitis season begins in January 2023.
The pandemic has severely disrupted meningitis prevention and services, and disease surveillance, laboratory case confirmation, and outbreak investigations have been drastically reduced. According to country reports, the WHO found that meningitis-related activities were reduced by 50% in 2020 compared to 2019, with a slight improvement in 2021. Benin, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Togo have backlogs with the MenAfriVac vaccine to protect a total of 50 million children under the age of 12 against type A meningitis.
Historically, type A meningitis was the leading cause of meningitis epidemics in Africa. However, in 2010, Africa embarked on an adventure to defeat type A meningitis when an effective vaccine, MenAfriVac, was developed and implemented. The vaccine was developed as a reaction to a call from African fitness ministers after an outbreak of type A meningitis in 1996 inflamed more than 250,000 people and killed more than 25,000 in just a few months. With WHO and its partners, more than 350 million people in 24 high-risk African countries have won the MenAfriVac vaccine since 2010.
The preference for this type of meningitis has been immensely successful. While type A meningitis accounted for 90% of cases and deaths before 2010, no new cases have been reported since 2017. Controlling this fatal form of meningitis has reduced the number of deaths from meningitis. type A and other types of microorganisms. While 50% of other people with meningitis died in 2004, in 2021, 95% of cases survived.
“The defeat of type A meningitis is one of Africa’s greatest stories of good fortune, but the consequences of COVID-19 are hampering our drive to eliminate this bacterial infection once and for all as a public health threat, and may lead to catastrophic resurgences. ” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “By prioritizing the reaction to COVID-19, we won’t have to lose our attention on other fitness-related issues. I urge countries to push forward the implementation of WHO’s new regional roadmap now. , before the meningitis season begins in January 2023. “
Although no cases of type A meningitis have been reported in Africa in the past five years, outbreaks still occur and are caused by other types of meningococcal bacteria. In 2019, 140,552 more people in the African region died from all types of meningitis. Major outbreaks caused by type C meningitis have been recorded in seven countries in the meningitis belt since 2013. In 2021, a four-month outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed another 205 people. In addition, the African region accounts for the number of new cases of meningitis in the world and is the only region that still has persistent epidemics. The continent reports one hundred cases of meningitis in the world, along with another 100,000 people.
“More than 400 million Africans are still at risk of seasonal outbreaks of meningitis, but the disease has been ignored for too long,” Dr. Moeti said. “In addition to the death toll, epidemics have a negative effect on health systems. “, our fragile economies and impoverish entire populations forced to face multiple socio-economic and health challenges. “
In an ambitious bid to defeat bacterial meningitis in the African region by 2030, the new regional strategy presented today sets out a roadmap for countries to conduct diagnostics, surveillance, care, advocacy and vaccination to eliminate epidemics, reduce deaths by 70% and halve infections. WHO estimates that US$ 1500 million will be needed until 2030 to implement the plan that, if fully followed in countries, will save more than 140,000 lives each year in the region and, in particular, reduce disability.
Meningitis is caused by inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord and is transmitted through sneezing, saliva, or phlegm in the nose and throat of other inflamed people. Acute bacterial meningitis is one of the deadliest and most disabling bureaucracies of the disease. It can cause death within 24 hours and leaves one in five people inflamed with a lifelong disability after infection. In Africa, the meningitis season is long, and runs from January to June.
Although meningitis affects people of all ages, young children are most at risk, and about a portion of cases and deaths occur in children under the age of five.
Dr. Moeti spoke today at a virtual press conference hosted by APO Group. He joined through Professor François Marc Laforce, Director of Technical Services, Serum Institute of India, and Rhoda Omorodion, Executive Director of the Care and Development Centre, Nigeria.
Dr Akpaka Kalu, Head of the Policy and Strategic Planning, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases Team, also provides from the WHO Regional Office for Africa to answer questions; Dr. Thierno Balde, Regional Manager of Covid-19 Incidents; Dr. Andre Bita, Regional Meningitis Control Manager; and Dr. Phionah Atuhebwe, the doctor guilty of introducing the vaccines.
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