3/4/2011
12:25am
Within Africa 450 million people are at risk from meningococcal disease. The disease kills thousands every year. Major group A epidemics happen every 7-14 years mainly affecting children and young adults. The sickest patients typically die within 24 to 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Of survivors 10 to 20 percent suffer brain damage, hearing loss or a learning disability. At the end of 2010 national health authorities in three of the worst-affected countries announced a new meningococcal A conjugate vaccine called MenAfriVac. The vaccine is said to provide long-term protection, for kids as young as one year, at a price affordable for Africa. Vaccines for a variety of meningococcal disease have been available for over 30 years but they only protect people for about 2-3 years and they don’t protect young children which makes them likely to get the disease making it harder to prevent epidemics. African ministers of health challenged international public health experts to find a means of preventing meningococcal A epidemics. After suggestions from the WHO, PATH and the United Sates CDC, scientist saw the opportunity to develop a vaccine to reduce the disease burden and epidemics.
The GAVI Alliance has distributed $ 29.5 million to introduce MenAfriVac in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, to cover vaccine purchases, planning, equipment, training and evaluation. To make the vaccine affordable the Serum Institute of India Ltd was selected because of their willing to produce it at a low cost. Clinical trials have shown the vaccine to be safe and very effective for a target population of 1-29 year-olds.In September 2010, the vaccine was introduced in selected districts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. If MenAfriVac is rapidly introduced throughout sub-Saharan Africa it’s believed that by 2015, 150,000 lives could be saved, as with over $120 million of savings in medical costs for diagnosis and treatment.
The ability of this vaccine to decrease the burden of disease and to reduce the likelihood of death among the younger generation will help will be very beneficial to its recipients. It seems that if more and more people are able to afford the vaccine and are able to lower their risk the African countries will have better and more productive societies. It also seems that with the reduction of the meningococcal disease there is also the possibility for a decline in the number of people who develop other diseases as a result.
http://www.who.int/features/2010/meningitis_vaccine/en/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment