MenAfriVac is a vaccine developed for use in sub-Saharan Africa that protects people 1 to 29 years of age against meningococcal bacterium Neisseria meningitidis group A. MenAfriVac costs under US$.50 per dose and reduces carriage of the bacteria from one person to another. The Meningitis Vaccine Project

Meningitis Vaccine Project

The Meningitis Vaccine Project is an effort to eliminate the meningitis epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa by developing a new meningococcal vaccine. The meningitis problem in that area is caused by a strain of meningitis called "meningitis A", which is only present in the African meningitis belt...

, a partnership between the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health

Program for Appropriate Technology in Health

The Program for Appropriate Technology in Health is an international, nonprofit global health organization based in Seattle, Washington , with 900+ employees in more than 30 offices around the world. Its president and CEO is Dr...

 (PATH) and the World Health Organization

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

, worked with a consortium of international partners to develop the vaccine.

History

The largest meningitis epidemic in African history swept across sub-Saharan Africa from 1996 to 1997, numbering 250,000 new cases of the disease and taking 25,000 lives. Three years later, the World Health Organization held a technical consultation in Cairo, Egypt with African ministers of health and global health leaders to discuss meningitis and the development of a new vaccine. At that meeting, representatives from eight African countries issued a statement saying that the development of a meningococcal vaccine to prevent epidemics was a high priority for them, and concluded that a conjugate meningococcal vaccine would have the potential to prevent future epidemics. They estimated that the new vaccine could become available in three to seven years for US$ 0.40 to $ 1 a dose, providing protection for at least ten years.

A year later, in 2001, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family"...

 provided a ten-year, $70 million grant to establish the Meningitis Vaccine Project

Meningitis Vaccine Project

The Meningitis Vaccine Project is an effort to eliminate the meningitis epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa by developing a new meningococcal vaccine. The meningitis problem in that area is caused by a strain of meningitis called "meningitis A", which is only present in the African meningitis belt...

, a partnership between PATH and the World Health Organization. The foundation charged the new project with development, testing, licensure, and mass introduction of a meningococcal conjugate vaccine. In 2002, the newly-funded collaboration supported reinforced meningitis surveillance activities in 12 countries in Africa: Benin

Benin

Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

, Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

, Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

, Central African Republic

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

, Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

, Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, and Togo

Togo

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

. Data from the surveillance indicated an increased risk of outbreaks in the future and the continued need for a conjugate A meningitis vaccine. MenAfriVac is available for widespread use in African meningitis belt

African meningitis belt

The African meningitis belt is a region in sub-Saharan Africa where the rate of incidence of meningitis is very high.-Regions:It consists of part of or all of , The Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, ...

 countries.

Manufacture

The Meningitis Vaccine Project partnered with SynCo Bio Partners

SynCo Bio Partners

SynCo Bio Partners is a Dutch biopharmaceutical company. More specifically, it is a biopharamaceutical contract manufacturing organization which is good manufacturing practice licensed by the Netherlands government.-History:...

, a Dutch biotech company, and the US government’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

The Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research is one of six main centers for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , which is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The current Director of CBER is Dr. Karen Midthun, M.D...

 to develop MenAfriVac, and the Serum Institute of India

Serum Institute of India

Serum Institute of India is a manufacturer of Immunobiological including vaccines in India. The company is managed by the Poonawalla group- fully owned by Cyrus Poonawalla. The company is the fifth biggest vaccinemaker by volume, the top four being GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck and Novartis...

 to manufacture it.

MenAfriVac is a freeze-dried vaccine of a polysaccharide

Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...

 from a type of Neisseria meningitidis

Neisseria meningitidis

Neisseria meningitidis, often referred to as meningococcus, is a bacterium that can cause meningitis and other forms of meningococcal disease such as meningococcemia, a life threatening sepsis. N. meningitidis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality during childhood in industrialized countries...

 called group A. The polysaccharide has been purified by affinity chromatography

Affinity chromatography

Affinity chromatography is a method of separating biochemical mixtures and based on a highly specific interaction such as that between antigen and antibody, enzyme and substrate, or receptor and ligand.-Uses:Affinity chromatography can be used to:...

 and bound to a carrier protein

Carrier protein

Carrier proteins are proteins involved in the movement of ions, small molecules, or macromolecules, such as another protein, across a biological membrane. Carrier proteins are integral membrane proteins; that is they exist within and span the membrane across which they transport substances. The...

 called tetanus toxoid

Tetanospasmin

Tetanus toxin is an extremely potent neurotoxin produced by the vegetative cell of Clostridium tetani in anaerobic conditions, causing tetanus. It has no known function for clostridia in the soil environment where they are normally encountered. It is also called spasmogenic toxin, tetanospasmin or...

. The TT is prepared by extraction by ammonium sulfate precipitation

Ammonium sulfate precipitation

Ammonium sulfate precipitation is a method used to purify proteins by altering their solubility. It is a specific case of a more general technique known as salting out....

 and the toxin is inactivated with formalin

Formaldehyde

Formaldehyde is an organic compound with the formula CH2O. It is the simplest aldehyde, hence its systematic name methanal.Formaldehyde is a colorless gas with a characteristic pungent odor. It is an important precursor to many other chemical compounds, especially for polymers...

 the toxin from cultures of Clostridium tetani

Clostridium tetani

Clostridium tetani is a rod-shaped, anaerobic bacterium of the genus Clostridium. Like other Clostridium species, it is Gram-positive, and its appearance on a gram stain resembles tennis rackets or drumsticks. C. tetani is found as spores in soil or in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. C...

 grown in a modified Mueller-Hinton agar

Mueller-Hinton agar

Müller-Hinton agar is an microbiological growth medium that is commonly used for antibiotic susceptibility testing. It is also used to isolate and maintain Neisseria and Moraxella species.It typically contains :*30.0% beef infusion...

.

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