WHO hopes new Africa meningitis vaccine can hasten eradication

A new Indian-developed meningitis vaccine costing just 40 US cents per dose could help eradicate the disease in Africa following successful tests on children, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

"When it becomes part of the public health arsenal, this vaccine will make a real difference in Africa," said F. Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), a partnership between the WHO and a US non-profit organisation, PATH.

"The vaccine will allow elimination of the meningococcal epidemics that have afflicted the continent for more than 100 years," he added.

Trials on 12- to 23-month old babies in Mali and Gambia showed that the vaccine was safe, and produced antibody levels almost 20 times higher than those obtained from more costly vaccines currently on the market.

LaForce said it should offer protection from type A meningitis prevalent in Africa's "menigitis belt" for 10-12 years with a single jab, while current commercial vaccines only offered protection for a few years.

He forecast that the vaccine could be introduced in Burkina Faso by the end of next year.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan said: "This important study brings real hope that the lives of thousands of children, teenagers, and young adults will be saved by immunisation and that widespread suffering, sickness and socioeconomic disruption can be avoided."

The global health body fears a new epidemic wave of the disease may have begun in sub-Saharan Africa. Some 47,925 cases were reported from January 1 to May 6 of this year, against 41,526 for the whole of 2006.

A previous epidemic across the "meningitis belt" from Senegal and Gambia in the west, to Ethiopia in the east, killed more than 25,000 people in 1996-97, the WHO noted.

Major epidemics affecting about 20 countries in the region occur every 10 to 12 years, LaForce said.

He estimated that 350 million people could be targeted in a mass vaccination campaign between 2008 and 2020.

The next stage in the vaccine's development will involve tests on 2-29 year olds in Mali, Gambia and at least one other African country.

The MVP has developed the vaccine in collaboration with Indian producer Serum Institute of India Limited (SIIL).

An additional clinical study is planned for this summer in India, where the vaccine will be licensed, the WHO said.

source : news.yahoo.com