MenAfriCar (the African Meningococcal Carriage Consortium) is a global research effort to study how meningococcal meningitis is spread in Africa, and to document the impact of a new meningitis vaccine on  meningococcal carriage and meningitis.

The sub-Saharan African meningitis belt stretches from in the east Ethiopia to Gambia and Senegal in the west. For over 100 years, major meningitis epidemics have occurred within the meningitis belt every few years. Click on a country to learn more about meningococcal disease there and the MenAfriCar partners present.

Nigeria Mali Ghana Niger Senegal Chad Ethiopia

The sub-Saharan African meningitis belt stretches from Ethiopia to Gambia and Senegal. Over the last 100 years, major meningitis epidemics have occurred within the meningitis belt every few years. Click on a country to learn more about meningococcal disease there and the MenAfriCar partners present.

Initiative to fight meningitis

 

Meningococcal infection is caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis (the meningococcus) which is spread from person to person via respiratory droplets.  Most infections with the meningococcus do not lead to any illness, the bacterium living harmlessly in the throat, a condition known as meningococcal carriage. However, occasionally, the bacterium invades to blood stream causing septicaemia and meningitis which can be fatal.

Meningococcal disease is a major threat to health in parts of sub-Saharan Africa (the “African meningitis belt”). Here, major epidemics occur every few years and these may be very large causing tens of thousands of cases. While previous attempts to prevent meningococcal disease in Africa through vaccination have had limited success, a new conjugate vaccine has been developed. This vaccine was first introduced in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in 2010 and is now being rolled out across the region.

MenAfriCar, a global research effort, has been established to determine how effective this new vaccine is  in preventing meningococcal disease and carriage in Africa.

 

NEWS

Scientific training visit: researcher from CVD Mali arrives

30 April 2013

Kanny Diallo has arrived in the UK on a training attachment from CVD Mali. She will be conducting MLST assays in Professor Martin Maiden’s laboratory at the Univeristy of Oxford as part of the consortium's capacity strengthening activities.

MenAfriCar laboratory coordinator Dr Olivier Manigart moved to the MRC Unit The Gambia

06 February 2013

Dr Olivier Manigart moved to the MRC Unit The Gambia, where he will investigate ways of detecting meningococci directly from pharyngeal swabs using molecular methods.