Expert says meningitis vaccine for mass campaigns is yet to be licensed in Kenya

Dr Collins Tabu, head of the immunisation policy and performance monitoring at the Ministry of Health during the first Ministerial Conference on Immunisation in Africa held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia between February 24 and February 25. PHOTO| ELIZABETH MERAB | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The Ministry of Health will at some point introduce the vaccine which the WHO now recommends should be included in routine immunisation.
  • Meningitis is a bacterial infection of the protective membranes (meninges) that surround the brain and spinal cord.
  • The bacteria is transmitted from person-to-person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions from carriers.

The meningitis vaccine used for mass campaigns for countries that lie on the meningitis belt is yet to be licensed in Kenya, an immunization expert has said.

This is despite the Northern part of the country being marked as one of the 26 areas which have the highest rates of the meningitis disease.

According to the expert, the lack of licensing, coupled with the fact that the country is still conducting disease surveillance in the eight affected counties, are the reasons why mass immunisation against the disease is yet to be conducted as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Collins Tabu, who heads the immunisation policy and performance monitoring at the Ministry of Health said the meningitis vaccine, MenAfriVac is however, “being considered along the new vaccines the country intends to introduce in the near future.”

The eight affected areas are Turkana Pokot, Mandera, Laisamis, Marsabit, Moyale, Chalbi, and Wajir North, which in total have a population of about 1,435,384.

“The areas are perceived to be at risk because they have been marked along the 25 countries that have had outbreaks but we have no information of the exact risk,” explained Dr Tabu.

Dr Tabu argued that the ministry “will at some point introduce the vaccine” which the WHO now recommends should be included in routine immunisation.
“As it is, we have different bacteria causing meningitis, yet the vaccine only covers Meningitis A.”

Dr Tabu said: “We have put in place a surveillance system for Meningitis A so that we can have data on who will need to be vaccinated. It is not a matter of just taking it as it is.”

The head of immunisation policy however said that there was no outbreak of meningitis.

Meningitis is a bacterial infection of the protective membranes (meninges) that surround the brain and spinal cord.

The bacteria is transmitted from person-to-person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions from carriers.

Some of the symptoms of the disease include; intense headache and fever, sensitivity to light, and muscular rigidity, leading (in severe cases) to convulsions, hallucination and death.

CLOSE AND PROLONGED CONTACT

Close and prolonged contact – such as kissing, sneezing or coughing on someone, or living in close quarters (such as a dormitory, sharing eating or drinking utensils) with an infected person– facilitates the spread of the disease whose average incubation period is four days.

The vaccine, was developed by the World Health Organisation in partnership with international global health non-profit PATH, to respond to a call for help from African ministers of health after one of the worst epidemics of meningitis.

“To sustain the protection that has been afforded to date against meningitis A, all at-risk countries must finish conducting vaccination campaigns and begin incorporating the vaccine into routine childhood immunisation programs,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, during the Ministerial Conference on Immunisation in Africa.

As of June 2015, over 220 million persons aged 1 to 29 years had received meningococcal A conjugate vaccine in 15 countries of the African belt.

This lowered cases of the infectious disease from over 250,000 during an outbreak in 1996 to just 80 in 2015, among countries that had not yet conducted mass immunisation.

In 2008, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance approved support to immunise people (aged 1 through 29 years) in the 26 meningitis belt countries who were at risk of contracting the disease with preventive campaigns.

Since the first campaign, Gavi has disbursed US$367 million to meningitis A programs for campaigns and an emergency stock.