Niger national health authorities presented Dr. Marc LaForce, director of the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), with the “Illustre Combattant de la Méningite.” MVP is a partnership between PATH and the World Health Organization that is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The partnership fostered development of MenAfriVac, a vaccine against the epidemic meningitis that sweeps through sub-Saharan countries known as the meningitis belt during the dry season. Beginning in December, more than 20 million people in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso will receive MenAfriVac™ in the first nationwide vaccination campaigns using a meningitis vaccine developed specifically for Africa.

http://www.path.org/news/an101511-Niger-meningitis.php