Nigeria receives 1m doses of new meningitis vaccine for outbreak response

Nigeria has received one million doses of the new MenFive vaccine, a meningitis vaccine, from the Gavi-funded global stockpile.

Meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal cord-surrounding membranes known as the meninges.

In a statement on Thursday, Gavi said Nigeria is the first country to receive the new vaccine, adding that the shipment delivered by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) arrived the country on Tuesday.

Gavi said the vaccine was developed through a 13-year collaboration between PATH and Serum Institute of India, with support from the UK government’s foreign, commonwealth and development office.

“It received WHO prequalification in July 2023. The vaccine protects against the five main serogroups of meningococcal meningitis impacting Africa — meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X. It is the only vaccine that protects against serogroup X,” the statement reads.

Meningococcal meningitis is the term used to describe a bacterial form of meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus).

This form of meningitis is associated with high morbidity and mortality.

Gavi said the doses will be used to respond to an ongoing meningococcus C outbreak, “targeting to vaccinate around a million children in six local government areas in Jigawa state: Babura, Birniwa, Gagarawa, Gumel, Maigatari, and Sule Tankarkar.”

“Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, funds the global stockpiles of vaccines against cholera, Ebola, meningitis and yellow fever, and supports outbreak response campaigns in lower-income countries.

“Country requests to these stockpiles are managed by the World Health Organization’s International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision.

“The ICG has approved the deployment of 1,043,377 doses of MenFive in response to Nigeria’s request.”

Tokunbo Oshin, director of high impact countries at Gavi, said the vaccine alliance will be working closely with the Nigerian government, as well as partners like UNICEF and WHO, to support response to the outbreak.

“With outbreaks of infectious diseases on the rise worldwide, new innovations such as MenFive are critical in helping us fight back,” he said.

“Thanks to vaccines, we have eliminated large and disruptive outbreaks of meningitis A in Africa: now we have a tool to respond to other meningococcal meningitis serogroups that still cause large outbreaks, resulting in long-term disability and deaths.”