July 24. 2015. Meningococcal Disease

http://www.path.org/menafrivac/meningitis-belt.php

When I began working at the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), I was not also sure what the specific topic would be. There were several options about meningococcal disease that I would be able to contribute to work on. Though I will be the first author for the paper, but honestly, the disease itself sounds pretty new to me! Nonetheless, it is interesting for me to know about this disease because it is predominant across sub-Saharan Africa. Here at IVAC, there are passionate people who are working for AGEDD Project, stands for Adult Global Estimation of Disease Burden and Distribution of Serotypes of Serious Pneumococcal and Meningococcal Disease. I learn so much about how to collaborate with each other to find a new subject to write for the benefit of AGEDD Project.

Meningitis, the best well-known subset of invasive meningococcal disease, is caused by inflammation and irritation of the membranes that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The symptom is stiff neck, fever, rashes, deafness, mental retardation, seizures, or paralysis, and some survivors lose their limb, or suffer permanent brain damage. In the Africa’s meningitis belt, a total of 450 million people are prone to this deadly disease. From West to East, Senegal to Ethiopia, epidemics of meningitis has swept across this region by killing one in ten people infected and leaving people severely debilitated. How to eliminate this disease? Thanks to a unique partnership between PATH and the World Health Organization cost-effective new vaccine MenAfriVac has been distributed, and 150 million people have received it. However, the serotype of disease has switched from typical Neisseria meningitides A to C, and it actually caused another epidemic in Niger and Nigeria this year.

The topic for meningococcal disease can be various: about vaccine policy, vaccine effectiveness, or history of epidemics in Africa. I hope that well-organized research about this disease will be done soon so that everyone in the world can react to prevent it in the future.