New round of MenAfriVac™ vaccination campaigns starts in Africa
5 December 2011—One year after MenAfriVac™’s successful debut in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, three new countries—Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad—are in turn introducing the new meningococcal A conjugate vaccine developed through the Meningitis Vaccine Project. Over the course of the next few weeks, some 22 million people aged between 1 and 29 years of age will receive the vaccine targeting the meningitis strain that has plagued sub-Saharan Africa for more than a century. Mali and Niger, which introduced MenAfriVac™ in selected districts last year, immunized their remaining districts in November. Counting those vaccinated in 2010, some 55 million people will have received the new vaccine by the end of December 2011.
Photo: UNICEF/Jon Shadid.
