Preventable ‘meningitis belt’ deaths targeted in health agency action plan

People anywhere, at any age can be infected with meningitis, which is transmitted through respiratory secretions or droplets in close human contact. Low and middle-income nations are worst-affected.  

The so-called “meningitis belt” in sub-Saharan Africa sees most cases and outbreaks. It stretches from Senegal and The Gambia in the west of the continent all the way to Ethiopia in the east.  

The most dangerous form of the disease, bacterial meningitis, can kill within just 24 hours – and one in six people dies once infected.

“Every family who has had a meningitis case knows about what fear this disease can bring,” said Dr Marie-Pierre Preziosi, WHO Team Lead for Meningitis and R&D Blueprint.

Life sentence

Around 20 per cent of people who contract bacterial meningitis develop long-term complications, including disabilities with a devastating, life-long impact, WHO said in a statement.

Extra attention must be paid to vaccination coverage to avoid critical problems including impairment of brain function, warned Dr Tarun Dua, WHO Unit Head for Brain Health, speaking to journalists at the launch of the new guidelines.

Class divide

Hearing loss is just one side-effect of the disease; it is often particularly harmful for children whose education suffers. But if it can be detected quickly as per the new WHO guidelines “you can provide treatment and the child can be well included” at school and in society”, Dr. Dua explained.

A cluster of three or four cases amongst schoolchildren can be treated with antibiotics but only if vaccination levels are high, according to Dr Lorenzo Pezzoli, WHO Team Lead for Meningitis and Epidemic Bacterial Diseases.

Worth a shot

But many countries lack the means to provide vaccine protection to ensure collective immunity against many diseases, not only meningitis. In addition, they also lack the advanced technology required to diagnose the disease in the first place, which isn’t as easy as a COVID-19 swab test.

“You need to insert the needle in the spine and test the liquid that comes out,” Dr Pezzoli said, highlighting the difficulty facing many low-income countries held back by poor health facilities.

In a growing number of countries impacted by emergencies crisis or conflict, people cannot get the treatment they need as quickly as they should, creating “fertile grounds for meningitis epidemics”, said Dr Pezzoli, who added that his two-year-old son has had his jab for the disease.  

The UN health agency guidelines form part of its efforts to eradicate meningitis by 2030. It works with partners including the MenAfrinet network to support countries collect and analyze high quality disease surveillance data. This enables monitoring the impact of control strategies including the Meningitis A vaccine.

Prevention is “the most important piece of the puzzle”, Dr Pezzoli insisted.