COVID-19 Threatens Meningitis War, 50m African Children Miss Vaccination – WHO

With the COVID-19 pandemic delaying meningitis vaccination campaigns for more than 50 million children in Africa, the region is at a heightened risk of outbreaks of meningitis type A, which has nearly been eliminated on the continent, the world Health Organisation ( WHO) has said.

WHO and its partners have therefore, launched a roadmap aimed at stopping bacterial meningitis outbreaks by 2030, urging countries to implement it rapidly before the start of the meningitis season in January 2023.

The organisation, in a statement yesterday, said based on reports from countries, it found that meningitis control activities were reduced by 50 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019, with a slight improvement in 2021, adding that Benin, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria and Togo delayed campaigns with the MenAfriVac vaccine aimed at protecting a total of 50 million children under 12 years of age against meningitis type A.

“The defeat of meningitis type A is one of Africa’s biggest success stories in health, but the fallout from COVID-19 hampers our drive to eliminate this bacterial infection as a public health threat once and for all, and could lead to catastrophic resurgences.

“In prioritising the response to COVID-19, we must not lose our focus on other health problems. I urge countries to ramp up implementation of the new WHO regional roadmap now, before the meningitis season begins in January 2023,” said WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti.

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“More than 400 million Africans are still at risk of seasonal meningitis outbreaks, but the disease has remained off the radar for too long,” said Dr Moeti, adding that aside from the toll on human life, outbreaks negatively impact health systems, the fragile economies, and impoverish entire populations forced to contend with multiple health and socio-economic challenges.