The GAVI Alliance announced that it “has fast tracked a US$55 million contribution to establish a stockpile of meningococcal vaccines and pay for reactive campaigns in the highly endemic African ‘meningitis belt’ countries.” GAVI said its contribution “will fund 45 million doses of vaccines through 2013 to support emergency outbreak responses in the most vulnerable countries.” Nina Schwalbe, Director of Policy at the GAVI Alliance, said, “It is the responsibility of GAVI and its partners UNICEF and WHO, to ensure timely access to life-saving existing vaccines.” The stockpile will be supplied with polysaccharide meningococcal vaccines, until a forthcoming conjugate vaccine becomes available. The funds are being channelled through UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), two key members of the GAVI Alliance.

The GAVI media release noted that, due to the global shortage of meningococcal vaccine, a special mechanism was established in 1997 to ensure that the population most in need would receive the life-saving vaccine in a timely manner. This mechanism includes the careful review of country requests for vaccines for outbreak response by the International Coordination Group (ICG) for meningitis, members of which include the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Médecins Sans Frontières, UNICEF and WHO. Now, with the US$55 million GAVI grant, “the meningitis vaccine stockpile will provide a speedy response for epidemic control for the next five years.”

Shanelle Hall, Director of Supply at UNICEF, said, “Having funds available upfront to finance this vaccine is truly life-saving,” said. “This is a critical development because when a meningitis epidemic breaks out in the most vulnerable areas of the world, vaccines need to be deployed immediately to stop the spread and protect children and their families.” Routine immunisation is not possible with the currently available polysaccharide vaccine, currently the only meningococcal vaccine available to combat the recurring epidemics in developing countries. The vaccine “is not very effective in children under two years of age because they lack the ability to develop antibodies.” A conjugate vaccine conferring long-term protection is expected to be available later this year in developing countries. GAVI “has already committed US$ 29.5 million to introduce this new conjugate vaccine as soon as it is available for preventive campaigns in the two years to come. In the interval before the conjugate vaccine is available, polysaccharide vaccines protect at-risk populations and ensure a speedy response to epidemics.”

http://www.gavialliance.org/media_centre/press_releases/2009_04_09_Meningitis_A.php