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Blog entries categorized under Logistics and programmatic issues related to new vaccine introduction

New Protection Against Meningitis

by Marc Laforce
Marc Laforce
F. Marc LaForce, MD Project Director, PATH Marc LaForce joined the Meningiti
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Monday, 17 January 2011 Category Logistics and programmatic issues related to new vaccine introduction 2 Comments

Starting this week, families in sub-Saharan Africa will finally get a long-term solution against a deadly disease. A new meningitis vaccine called MenAfriVac™ is reaching millions of people in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger beginning today, and neighboring countries will soon follow. This is the first vaccine ever developed to provide sustained protection against the specific strain that causes most outbreaks of bacterial meningitis in Africa’s meningitis belt. More than 450 million people are at risk of meningococcal A meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis, which can explode in large epidemics.  The disease kills one in ten people who get sick, and leaves a quarter of survivors deaf or with other severe disabilities.

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Rahman Olasunkanmi Kelani
  Thanks Tory for this beautiful piece. I totally agree with you. there are no complexities, the presidents are the commander in chief of armed forces, and the employer of the minister of healths. These  
ian.tansley
  I think this is a great idea. It's unfortunate that you jump immediately ahead to solar only sites as the vast majority of sites are still powered exclusively using diesel generators. Most of the ti  
ian.tansley
  The concepts of holdover and autonomy have been borrowed from the old battery powered solar fridges and to my mind don’t have a place in the new world free of unreliable batteries. There is some conf  
Mohammad Tiu
  Informative post!Bill Gates and his wife Melinda's engagement to the different charity events is one of the calls that caught my interest to read this article. To be immunized of vaccine is one of the  
Toryalai Hart
  Wow James - Thanks for this fascinating post, particularly about the freeze drying of smallpox vaccine. Unfortunately, at least in W-Africa, storage rooms are typically built of cement blocks with a  
Toryalai Hart
  Corporate CSR is indeed an interesting angle but likely would prove complex if they were doing anything more than helping with cold chain logistics and storage? Some work is already being done on thi  
Ranjit Dhiman
  Thanks Tory for this nice initiative and great example of support to immunization programs. I believe it is time for countries to revisit the strategy of making and owning the infrastructure in terms  
Toryalai Hart
  If I were specifying equipment for a project, I would seek out a balance between autonomy and holdover, thus leading to maximum reliability for the lowest cost while distributing the risk of failure a  

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