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 past few decades, but current surveillance strategies are insufficient in many settings for impact assessment of new vaccines and for identifying epidemic meningococcal serogroups in a timely manner. The author argues that vaccine development should be accompanied with long-term funding of relevant surveillance systems, and current and new surveillance techniques should be evaluated for their sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

Author(s): Mueller JE

Published: 2013

Resource types: Peer-reviewed journal

Diseases: Meningococcus; Pneumococcus

Topics: Disease burden and surveillance; Disease/vaccine specific information

Regions: Africa