Noticed bits and pieces of this showing up over the last month so thought I'd put a few things together here.
US
_http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-push-for-meningitis-b-vaccines-on-college-campuses-1441648703
UK
_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33736761
_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34084999
Africa
_http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/08/07/vaccines-short-as-meningitis-epidemic-erupts-in-west-africa
And a little digging, back in January
_http://www.voanews.com/content/meningitis-vaccine-infants-9jan15/2591791.html
US
_http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-push-for-meningitis-b-vaccines-on-college-campuses-1441648703
New Push for Meningitis B Vaccines on College Campuses
Scares across the country prompt administrators to take more pre-emptive measures
By Peter Loftus
Sept. 7, 2015 1:58 p.m. ET
1 COMMENTS
As the fall semester gets under way, some U.S. colleges and universities are offering students new vaccines against a bug responsible for recent campus outbreaks of a rare but life-threatening form of meningitis.
Academic institutions are taking a range of approaches, from simply making the shots available at student health centers to anyone who is interested, to holding vaccine clinics on campus that students are required to attend.
Providence College, where two students contracted meningitis last winter, held vaccination clinics the past two weekends. The school required first-year students to attend, though students could opt out of receiving the shots.
“We wanted to immunize students as soon as possible,” partly because of the risk that some students may still be carrying the bug, says Kristine Goodwin, vice president of student affairs at the Rhode Island college.
Two new vaccines, Trumenba and Bexsero, protect against a category of strains of Neisseria meningitidis known as serogroup B. The bacteria, which are spread by contact with saliva or mucus, can cause meningitis, an inflammation of membranes around the brain and spinal cord that can be fatal or cause disabilities. Symptoms include fever, headache and stiff neck. Meningitis is more commonly diagnosed in adolescents and young adults than other age groups.
[..]
UK
_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33736761
Students targeted in MenW vaccination programme
1 August 2015
Teenagers going to university and college this year are being offered protection against a deadly strain of meningitis, called MenW.
GPs across the UK are inviting 17 and 18-year-olds to come for a vaccine. First-time students under 25 are eligible too.
There has been a steep rise in MenW cases since 2009 and experts say this group is particularly vulnerable.
Meningitis W also has a higher death rate than other strains of the disease.
Public Health England says it is important that anyone who plans to go to university this year gets vaccinated before they leave, because they will be mixing closely with lots of new people, some of whom may unknowingly be carrying the meningococcal bacteria.
Health experts in Scotland and Wales are also urging school-leavers and freshers to make an appointment at their GP surgery this summer.
The vaccination protects against meningitis and septicaemia caused by four meningoccocal strains - Men W, A, C and Y.
Teenagers born between 1 September 1996 and 31 August 1997 will be sent an invitation by their GP to come and receive the vaccination.
[..]
_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34084999
Meningitis B vaccinations start across UK for all newborns
By James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website
A new programme to vaccinate all newborn babies against meningitis B has started in the UK - the first scheme of its kind in the world.
The Men B vaccine will be given to babies at two, four and 12 months old as part of routine immunisations.
Infants aged under one are at the most risk of meningitis B infection, which is fatal in one in 10 cases.
Campaigners said it could prevent up to 4,000 cases by 2025, but warned parents should be aware of meningitis symptoms.
A catch-up programme will also target babies born since May who have missed the first jabs.
The scheme, which has been delayed by cost disputes, is the first national and publicly-funded programme against the deadly infection in the world.
Babies already receive a meningitis C vaccination when three months old, with a booster at 12 months.
Students are also offered a combined vaccine giving protection against four strains of the disease, meningococcal A, C, W and Y.
[..]
Africa
_http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/08/07/vaccines-short-as-meningitis-epidemic-erupts-in-west-africa
Child-killing meningitis C epidemic threatens to balloon in Nigeria amid shortage of vaccine
Associated Press
Aug. 7, 2015 | 11:08 a.m. EDT
By CAELAINN HOGAN, Associated Press
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — International health officials are scrambling, without much success, to find meningitis C vaccines as an outbreak of the child-killing disease threatens to balloon into an epidemic.
The first large-scale outbreak of the C strain in decades has this year killed 800 of 12,000 infected people in Nigeria and in neighboring Niger, according to the World Health Organization.
In 2013 and 2014, deaths numbered 128 out of 2,046 people who fell ill, WHO said, indicating the infection rate has soared and could grow much higher in 2016.
"We've never seen this before with meningitis C," William A. Perea, coordinator of WHO's Control of Epidemic Diseases Unit, said of the resurgence of the strain.
The bacterial infection mostly targets children, inflames the brain and spinal cord and kills half those infected if left untreated. Survivors can suffer brain damage, deafness, constant fatigue and neurological and emotional difficulties.
West Africa's biggest epidemic, in 1996, hit four countries, infected a quarter million people and killed 25,000. It was caused predominantly by meningitis A.
Since 2010, the meningitis A conjugate vaccine — used across 15 sub-Saharan countries in the "meningitis belt" stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east — has reduced infection rates. But it does not protect against the equally deadly C strain.
WHO, and partners including Doctors Without Borders, say they want to build a 5 million-dose stockpile before next year's meningitis season, which runs from January to June during the dry hot months that force people indoors and enable transmission.
While the Indian-manufactured meningitis A vaccine costs around 60 cents, the conjugate vaccine for meningitis C used in the United States costs $30 to $100 a dose. Two doses for babies provide 10 years' protection.
A much cheaper polysaccharide vaccine, produced for travelers, likely will be used as a stop-gap in West Africa. But that vaccine doesn't work for children under 2 and lasts only around two years.
At the start of the last meningitis season in January, only 200,000 meningitis C doses were available for the region, according to Myriam Henkens, international medical coordinator of Doctors Without Borders. By end of the season, in June, international agencies had sourced 1.6 million.
This month, WHO urged manufacturers to increase production. "The first round of discussions, (manufacturers) said no, we just can't produce any more," said Perea.
Major manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur has halted production to upgrade facilities and cannot restart until year's end, according to one of the French-based company's vice presidents, Michael Watson. He said they are one of only four global vaccine producers.
"You can't just turn on the tap," said Watson.
Nigerian health leaders have repeatedly asked the government to reopen a vaccine lab which once produced millions of vaccines for yellow fever, rabies and smallpox.
With a domestic market of 170 million people, "in Nigeria it makes a lot of sense," Watson said. "They have a population that justifies it."
In the late 1970s, Nigeria's laboratory made millions of smallpox vaccines that helped eradicate the disease regionally, according to Felix Nwabueze, who was a quality control officer. The lab fell into disrepair under the neglect of corrupt government officials.
"It would be more cost-effective if vaccines were produced in country, and would create employment," said Godswill Okara, former head of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists.
Abdulsalami Nasidi, who headed the lab in the 1980s and now is director of Nigeria's Center for Disease Control, fears the potential fatalities if a vaccine shortage and meningitis epidemic collide.
"But we are worried about the paucity not just of the meningitis C vaccine but other vaccines," he added. "Maybe this will teach us a lesson, to really address the local manufacturing issue."
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
And a little digging, back in January
_http://www.voanews.com/content/meningitis-vaccine-infants-9jan15/2591791.html
WHO Approves Infant Meningitis Vaccine
Joe DeCapua
Last updated on: January 09, 2015 9:27 AM
The World Health Organization has approved the use of a meningitis vaccine for infants in sub-Saharan Africa. The vaccine has been given to older children and young adults for the past four years.
The WHO said the MenAfriVac vaccine meets international standards for quality, safety and efficacy and now can be used for children under one year of age.
It immunizes against meningitis A – a bacterial disease that causes inflammation of membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it can kill within hours – and poses a threat to 450-million people in the so-called “meningitis belt.” The belt consists of 26 countries stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Ethiopia in the East.
The CDC said one in 10 people will die from meningitis A even when antibiotics are given. And one out of four survivors may be left with paralysis, blindness, hearing loss and seizures.
Dr. Marie-Pierre Préziosi is director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project – a partnership between the World Health Organization and PATH, a non-profit health organization. She said that meningitis has been a threat in parts of Africa for about 100 years.
“Based on the call from countries, the global health community came about with this project. And the project and its partners developed a vaccine – licensed it – and introduced it for mass vaccination campaigns. So this has been a tremendous success. And populations from one to 29 years of age are now protected,” she said
But she said it’s now important to extend that protection to infants.
“If we just stop there and don’t provide countries with tour de force sustainability in 10 [or] 15 years from now this massive epidemic will return because there will be [an] accumulation of susceptible persons in the population. Therefore, there was the need to adapt a vaccine for use in routine immunization in the youngest, in the infants. And this is the purpose of the current licensure and recommendation.”
Dr. Préziosi said the MenAfriVac vaccine offers protection against meningitis A for up to five years. But follow-up studies will be done to monitor the length of its effectiveness. Asked if there are any safety concerns, she said, “No, no safety concern. These conjugate vaccines are extremely safe.”
Meningitis A is spread from person to person.
“The only reservoir is human beings," she said.
The bacteria can be spread in respiratory droplets when a person sneezes, coughs, talks or even laughs.
The head of the Meningitis Vaccine Project said since the vaccine was introduced four years ago about 217-million people have been immunized. Another 100-million are expected to be vaccinated in the next few years. The meningitis vaccine is expected to become part of routine immunizations and given to 30-million infants a year in the meningitis belt.
The MenAfriVac vaccine costs less than a dollar per dose. The GAVI Alliance is picking half the cost in the first year of mass immunizations with individual countries paying the rest. GAVI is a public/private partnership that works to increase access to vaccines in poor countries. After the initial mass immunization, the cost gradually shifts to the countries.
