“A new vaccine is being rolled out across Africa’s ‘meningitis belt,’ where dry winds and dust fuel regular and deadly outbreaks. The shot protects against nearly all major bacterial strains that cause meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa and could save millions of lives,” reports The Doomslayer. Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites.
Wikipedia explains that
The African meningitis belt is a region in sub-Saharan Africa where the rate of incidence of meningitis is very high. It extends from Senegal to Ethiopia, and the primary cause of meningitis in the belt is Neisseria meningitidis….areas receiving 300–1,100 mm [12 to 43 inches] of mean annual rainfall, which is the case in sub-Saharan Africa. The intercontinental spread of meningitis has also been traced to South Asia, brought by those making the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, in 1987…..The “belt” has an estimated 300 million people in its total area. This region is not only prone to meningitis, but also very prone to epidemics such as malaria.
The most affected countries in the region are Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, and Niger. Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Niger were accountable for 65% of all cases in Africa. In major epidemics, the attack rate range is 100 to 800 people per 100,000. However, communities can have attack rates as high as 1000 per 100,000. During these epidemics, young children have the highest attack rates. More than 90,000 cases were reported in the belt in 2009, in comparison, less than 800 cases were reported in the United States in 2011.
Neisseria meningitidis is found in other parts of the world as well, but the highest rates occur in the “meningitis belt.”
Recently, a vaccine to save koalas from chlamydia was approved. Thousands of koalas have died of chlamydia in recent years, accounting for as much as 50% of all koala deaths. Perhaps as few as 50,000 koalas remain.
Scientists have developed a rabies vaccine for vampire bats that spreads through grooming: “The vaccine is delivered via a gel applied to one bat’s fur. When others groom it, they ingest the gel and gain immunity. Laboratory studies show this method could effectively protect entire colonies.”
In other good news, millions of Africans are receiving a life-saving malaria vaccine, and a poor African nation has rolled out a vaccine to fight cervical cancer.
