Recent news
May 2011
GAVI Alliance commits $100M for new meningitis vaccine
May 13, 2011 -- The GAVI Alliance recently announced that it has committed $100 million to support the use of a meningitis vaccine developed by PATH. The vaccine, MenAfriVac, was developed in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and several US agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and US Agency for International Development.
The new vaccine was launched in Burkina Faso in December, and GAVI supported three other endemic countries—Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—to introduce the vaccine in late 2010. These countries have seen significantly fewer meningitis A cases during this year’s epidemic than during the 2009/2010 season, according to WHO data.
"We accelerated our approvals process so that we can ensure this vaccine is available in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, before next year's epidemic season due to start in December," said Helen Evans, interim GAVI CEO. "This is a breakthrough vaccine in the fight against meningitis A. If GAVI is fully funded for our 2011-2015 program, this vaccine could save many lives and avoid the other terrible consequences of epidemics." See the links below for more information.
