The Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) was established with the goal of developing, testing, licensing, and introducing an affordable group A meningococcal conjugate vaccine for Africa. The authors of this article, published in Vaccine, describe the …

This article, published in Tropical Medicine & International Health, asserts that surveillance systems and techniques for diagnosing bacterial meningitis and pneumococcal disease in the African meningitis belt have improved greatly over the …

Keeping heat-sensitive vaccines and other drugs at the right temperature is crucial yet often difficult in areas with limited or no electrical power. This fact sheet describes a response to this challenge, where a group of public- and private-sector …

The authors of this article, published in PLoS ONE, applied cost-effectiveness modeling and a cold-chain impact assessment to aid decision-making on rotavirus vaccine introduction in Kenya. They conclude that use of either vaccine is cost-effective, …

Epidemic meningococcal meningitis remains a serious health threat in the African meningitis belt. New meningococcal conjugate vaccines are relatively costly and their efficiency will depend on cost savings realized from no longer having to respond …

This article, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, discusses an anthropologic and economic study in Burkina Faso to understand perceptions and behavior relative to meningitis and to determine the cost of illness from bacterial …

Epidemic meningococcal meningitis continues to be an important worldwide cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries. Throughout its history, a number of "critical episodes" have occurred that have enhanced understanding of …

This paper examines the health risks posed by unsafe injections in Africa and outlines some of the programs that are helping reduce these risks.

The epidemiology of meningococcal meningitis in the African meningitis belt is characterized by seasonality, localized epidemics, and epidemic waves. To facilitate research and surveillance, the authors of this article, published in BMC Infectious …

Project Optimize undertook a cost-comparison case study of five container options for vaccine transport from the national to the regional level in Senegal. This report may be used as a starting point for other country vaccine programs weighing …

This article, published in the World Health Organization's (WHO's) Weekly Epidemiological Record, provides the WHO recommendation for detecting and responding to meningococcal meningitis epidemics in highly-endemic countries in Africa. In each …

This article, published in PLoS Medicine, provides an overview of the development and implementation of a national program for the management of severe and very severe childhood pneumonia in Malawi. Based on a successful delivery model used by the …

Group A meningococcal disease has been an important public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa for over a century. From 2003 to 2009 a monovalent group A conjugate vaccine, MenAfriVac™, was developed through an innovative public/private …

This project Optimize document summarizes a laboratory report on performance testing of four models of domestic refrigerators that are available on the Tunisian market. Project Optimize contracted the tests to demonstrate to the government the …

This study, published in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, discusses the introduction of Hib vaccine in Kenya, one of the first nine countries to receive financial support from GAVI for Hib vaccine introduction. The objective of this study …

This article, published in Vaccine, evaluates the incremental health and programmatic cost impacts of theoretical new vaccine products as compared to the standard vaccine products in multi-dose vials in Cambodia, Ghana, and Bangladesh. The authors …

This article, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, discusses a study on the efficacy of rotavirus vaccine in Africa. Results showed 30.2 percent efficacy against all-cause severe gastroenteritis. The study concluded that rotavirus …

In 2010, Burkina Faso conducted a country-wide campaign to introduce a new Group A meningococcal conjugate vaccine, MenAfriVac™. Leading up to this effort, the following challenges were successfully managed: (1) conducting a large safety study …

Published in The Lancet, this study aims to assess the efficacy of a nine-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in children through a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in eastern Gambia. Children age 6–51 weeks were randomly …

This article, published in The Lancet, shares results of an efficacy study of the pentavalent, live oral rotavirus vaccine in Ghana, Kenya, and Mali. Results showed 39.3 percent efficacy against  severe rotavirus gastroenteritis. The authors …

This study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, evaluated the efficacy of the RTS,S malaria vaccine given with a more immunogenic adjuvant system (AS01E) than one used in a previous study (AS02A). The study was conducted in …

This article, published in Health Affairs, discusses a new affordable vaccine against Group A meningococcus, the most common cause of large and often fatal African epidemics of meningitis, that was introduced in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in …

Routine immunization of infants in The Gambia with a Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) polysaccharide-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine began in May 1997. This article, published in The Lancet, reports on a study that investigated the effectiveness …

This comment, published in The Lancet, is based on a review of the study "Emergency Vaccination Against Epidemic Meningitis in Ghana: Implications for the Control of Meningococcal Disease in West Africa." The author concludes that …

This article, published in The Lancet, assessed the potential effects of different vaccination strategies against meningococcal disease using data from the 1997 meningococcal outbreak in northern Ghana. Using a simple mathematical model, …