Meningitis breakthrough could be on horizon

A breakthrough low-cost vaccine for meningitis, a disease that kills thousands of West Africans every year, could be in use within three years, researchers said on Wednesday. The new vaccine for A-strain meningitis, prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, is being developed by the Meningitis Vaccination Project (MVP), a non-profit group working with the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and human trials are to begin in the region later this year. The vaccine can be given to children under two, unlike current meningitis vaccines, and can be used as a purely preventive measure to stave off meningitis A infection. "Our Phase I clinical results are extremely encouraging and open the prospect to start pivotal Phase II clinical studies in the Gambia and Mali later this year after approvals from all regulatory authorities," Dr Marc LaForce, director of MVP, said in a statement. "If all continues to go well in testing, the new vaccine, which will be priced at about 40 cents per dose, could be introduced in Africa within the next three to four years," he added. Meningitis, which attacks the brain and spinal column and is potentially fatal, is endemic in much of the arid Sahel region of West Africa with outbreaks most common during the dry season, from January to March. This is when dry sand-laden winds that settle hazily in the sky act as carriers of the meningitis bacteria which can attach to dust particles. Countries most severely affected by A-strain meningitis are those spanning from Senegal and Gambia in the west to Ethiopia in the east, making up the so-called “meningitis belt” with an estimated population of 3 million people, according to WHO. Some 10 percent those who contract the disease die and many survivors are left deaf, WHO says. Eric Bertherat, a doctor in WHO’s Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Response Unit told IRIN that if the trials are successful, preventive vaccines for meningitis A will become possible for the first time. “It is a big step forward as we will be able to do preventive vaccinating which previously we were unable to do,” adding that currently available vaccines can only be used to contain an identified outbreak of the virus. The new vaccine could also be administered to very young children; current vaccines can be used only on children two years old and over, MPV says. Furthermore, the new vaccine could provide protection for up to 10 years compared to three years for existing vaccines, the group says. The vaccine has also been specially developed for Africa, with manufacturers identifying the final sale price of the vaccine – 40 cents - at the beginning of the development project. "Targeting the price at the beginning of the project to make it affordable to African countries is really a new way of working," WHO’s Bertherat said. However, the wonder vaccine does not protect against the W135 strain of meningitis, which has been responsible for some of the largest and most fatal outbreaks in recent years. In 2002, an outbreak of the W135 strain of meningitis afflicted 13,000 people and killed 1,500 in Burkina Faso, according to WHO.