Nigeria receives new meningitis vaccine as Yobe, others battle

Nigeria has become the first country to receive the new MenFive meningitis vaccine from the Vaccine Alliance-funded global stockpile, with a shipment delivered by the United Nations Children’s Fund.

This was disclosed in a press statement made available to our correspondent by Gavi on Thursday.

“The ICG approved the deployment of 1,043,377 doses of MenFive in response to Nigeria’s request,” the statement noted.

The vaccine arrived amid the outbreak of meningitis in a number of states, including Yobe and Gombe.

Last week, Yobe quarantined 206 persons after recording 20 deaths from meningitis, while Gombe reported six deaths.

Data obtained from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention noted that as of March 3, 2024, 82 local government areas in 22 states have reported 1,402 suspected cases, 101 confirmed cases, and 123 deaths with a case fatality rate of 9.4 per cent since October 2023.

The data showed that the age group mostly affected are from five to 14, followed by age 15 -29 years.

It said Yobe, Bauchi, Jigawa, Gombe and Katsina accounts for 94 per cent of cases in Nigeria.

Meningitis, according to the World Health Organisation, is transmitted from person to person through droplets of respiratory and throat secretions.

It is an infection of the meninges, the thin lining that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.

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The disease is known to cause hearing loss, brain damage, seizures, limb loss, or other disabilities and death, and can also be triggered by viruses, fungi, or parasites.

Gavi, in a statement on Thursday, said the vaccine doses will be used to respond to an ongoing meningococcus C outbreak, targeting to vaccinate around a million children in six local government areas in Jigawa State – Babura, Birniwa, Gagarawa, Gumel, Maigatari, and Sule Tankarkar.

The MenFive vaccine was developed through a 13-year collaboration between PATH and Serum Institute of India, with support from the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The vaccine received WHO prequalification in July 2023 to protect against the five main serogroups of meningococcal meningitis impacting Africa – meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X.

It is the only vaccine that protects against serogroup X.

Commenting on the milestones, the Director of High Impact Countries at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Dr Tokunbo Oshin, said, “With outbreaks of infectious diseases on the rise worldwide, new innovations such as MenFive are critical in helping us fight back.

“Thanks to vaccines, we have eliminated large and disruptive outbreaks of meningitis A in Africa: now we have a tool to respond to other meningococcal meningitis serogroups that still cause large outbreaks resulting in long-term disability and deaths.

“Gavi will be working closely with the Nigerian government as well as our partners such as UNICEF and WHO to support the response to this outbreak.”