Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project at PATH, gives an update on the MenAfriVac rollout from Burkina Faso.
I had to return to Burkina Faso, one of the hottest countries in Africa, during one of the hottest months of the year. A surveillance team from the World Health Organization (WHO) was sending me weekly updates from the West African country. Still, I had to see for myself whether our ten-year effort to rid Africa of one of its most devastating diseases was succeeding.
Mercy Ahun of the GAVI Alliance looks back on the horrible meningitis epidemics that hit her native country of Ghana. But thanks to a new vaccine, Ghana may be able to rid itself of the disease.
Growing up in a Ghanaian coastal village, the dry and dusty trade winds that blew in from the Sahara were associated with Advent, Christmas and happiness.
But as I moved inland with my work, they also became linked with meningococcal meningitis A (men A), Ghana’s most common form of meningitis, which brought major epidemics every eight to 12 years.
Men A strikes children and young adults suddenly, causing severe headaches, fever and a stiff neck. Patients can die within 48 hours.
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
Amadou Francois Dipama is a town crier. Every day between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m., he steadily traverses the streets of Saaba, Burkina Faso by bike or foot, doing the local version of the evening news.
Amadou François Dipama with his bullhorn.
For a small fee, Amadou, 54, will raise his bullhorn to his weathered lips, flip the switch, and, after a punishing blast of feedback, declaim items of interest to the people of Saaba. He might announce a show, a dance or a community meeting. Lately, he’s been talking about meningitis A.
All of the young people need to come get the vaccine, Amadou says.
Alidou Ouedraogo, along with a drawing he made at school.
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
Alidou Ouedraogo can’t remember when meningitis stole his hearing. He frowns slightly as he watches his teacher’s fingers spell out the question in sign language. He gently touches his head, to indicate he’s thinking. Then he signs, “When I was very small.”
It’s been at least 16 years since Alidou recovered from meningitis, but not without experiencing one of its most common side effects: hearing loss.
Age 19 now, he began school at the Integrated Education and Training Center of Deaf and Hearers in his hometown of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso when he was three.
The school, which is known by its French acronym, CEFISE, is directed by Théresè P. Kafando, who helped her late husband build the school from 19 students in 1988 to about 3,500 today.
From the start, CEFISE has accepted an exuberant mix of deaf and hearing children on the theory that they help each other learn. Today, about 450 of her students are deaf, Madame Kafondo says. At least 80 percent of those students, she estimates, are deaf because of meningitis.
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
In Emmanual Ouisnoma’s village — Korsimoro, Burkina Faso — people know that epidemic meningitis is a disease that kills. And that’s not all, says Ouisnoma, a long-time health center volunteer who spoke with me yesterday about the effect of meningitis in his village. They know that a vaccine that can protect against meningitis for 10 years or more is “something really special.”
Our friends at PATH are on an amazing mission to bring a new meningitis vaccine to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Follow their stories on the ONE Blog as the journey unfolds.
Vaccine arrival in Burkina Faso in preparation for MenAfriVac launch. Photo credit: WHO
On Monday morning, I’ll wake up in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and join the crowds of people moving toward the Place de la Nation in the center of town. As the sun rises high and hot in the West African sky, we’ll stand together in the rose-colored dust of the plaza and watch musicians and dancers perform. A few dignitaries, including the nation’s president and the head of the World Health Organization, will speak. Then, the children and young adults of Ouagadougou will form a line, bare their shoulders and receive a dose of a vaccine with the potential to end epidemic meningitis in Africa.
The first mass vaccination campaigns with MenAfriVac™ will have begun. By early next year, some 20 million people throughout Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will have received the vaccine, and will be protected from a disease that has killed or disabled hundreds of thousands in their homelands.
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