The teenage girls queuing up inside the Girls Senior High School in Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana, fan away the hot air with their vaccination cards. Today’s immunization campaign is a welcome break from their school routine and the girls are the first in their country to receive the long-awaited meningitis A shots. Ghana is embarking on a programme to inoculate nearly 3 million people with a groundbreaking vaccine, MenAfriVac®, that has already significantly reduced the number of meningitis cases in other African countries.

Meningitis: serious and potentially fatal

Meningitis is a serious and potentially fatal disease caused by bacteria, and a cause of widespread fear in Africa’s so-called meningitis belt – 26 countries stretching from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east. Meningitis A mostly attacks infants, children, and young adults. Up to 500 million people are at risk from this infection that can cause severe brain damage and kills one out of ten patients - even if they receive effective antibiotics. Many suffer life-long disabilities including hearing loss, seizures and learning difficulties. In 2009, the seasonal outbreak of meningitis across a large swathe of sub-Saharan Africa infected at least 88 000 people and led to more than 5 000 deaths.