29 JUNE 2007 | ACCRA -- A mission of Consultants from WHO Africa Region (AFRO) and Headquarters is in the country to make official contacts with the Ministry of Health including the Food and Drugs Board and the Ghana Health Service for their full information and update on the Meningitis Vaccine Project.

The team which will be in the country for five days will also visit the Navrongo Health Research Centre in the Upper East Region which has accepted to be the study site of the trial in Ghana for the MVP Phase II infant clinical trial study scheduled to start in the September 2007. The mission will also seek preliminary informal agreement of the country to host the trial before MVP proceeds any further and to discuss implementation of the trial.

Meningococcal meningitis is the most feared disease in the "meningitis belt" of Africa, an area that extends from Ethiopia in the east to Senegal and The Gambia in the west. Meningitis epidemics caused by sero-group A meningococcus occur almost every year in one or more countries in this region and may infect over 200,000 people at one time. Despite antibiotic therapy, at least 1 out of every 10 children with invasive disease will die, and up to 25 percent of survivors are left with chronic neurologic sequelae (hearing loss and mental retardation) and loss of limbs.

Symptoms of the disease include high fever, vomiting, and confusion, which can progress over several hours to death. Given the acute onset of severe illness, the rapid spread of disease through communities, and the serious morbidity and mortality, meningitis is one of the more visible causes of human suffering in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2001, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the World Health Organization (WHO) and PATH a US$70 million seed grant to launch the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP). The mission of MVP is to eliminate epidemic meningitis as a public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa. The partnership creates a credible platform for the development, evaluation, and licensure of meningococcal conjugate vaccines for use in sub-Saharan Africa.

The conjugate vaccine is being targeted for the 1-29 year age group in the meningitis belt. Phase II Clinical trials are being undertaken in 1-2year age group in Basse in the Gambia and Bamako in Mali with promising results.