2023 Annual meeting on Meningitis-MenAfriNet, Yellow Fever, Measles-Rubella and Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination

About 152 participants in person and 50 remotely from 16 countries, participated in the annual meeting on Meningitis-MenAfriNet, Yellow Fever, Measles-Rubella and Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination, from 14-16 November 2023 in Brazzaville, at the Regional Office of WHO in Africa.

The opening and closing ceremonies were performed by Prof SHEY Charles, Vaccination Team Lead in AFRO, on behalf of the Director of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases Cluster. About 35 presentations given over 10 sessions in three days highlighted the burden of the five diseases at stake, the gains or achievements made, the challenges encountered, the lessons learnt or best practices and the way forward.  

A lot of side-meetings took place to review, among others, the tentative dates for the introduction of either the MenAfriVac Vaccine, for countries which are yet to do so, and the Multivalent Meningococcal Conjugate Vaccine ACWYX, as per WHO’s recommendations for countries in the African meningitis belt into their routine immunization programmes in a single-dose schedule at 9 to 18 months of age. The next phase of the MenAfriNet project led by US CDC was also discussed.

A set of recommendations yet to be finalized were formulated on strengthening surveillance, diagnostics, data management, case management, vaccination and coordination in order to achieve the goals towards eliminating these vaccine-preventable diseases.

The next major milestone to mark on the agenda is the pledging event on the global roadmap to defeat meningitis by 2030, which is scheduled in quarter 1 of 2024 in France. It is worth mentioning that the budget for implementing the roadmap to defeat meningitis by 2030 in the WHO African Region is estimated at 1.5 billion USD.  

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Authors:

Hilaire DADJO, Communications Officer, WHO/IST West Africa – email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
André BITA, Meningitis Focal Point, WHO/AFRO – email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Anderson LATT, Meningitis Focal Point, EPR, WHO/Dakar Hub – email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ado BWAKA, VPD-Polio Team Lead, WHO/IST West Africa – email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.