Vaccination, health
Nigeria records milestone, first to receive MenFive Vaccine for meningitis outbreak
Nigeria has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first country to receive the new MenFive vaccine from the Gavi-funded global stockpile.
Nigeria requested the deployment of 1,043,377 doses of MenFive, and the World Health Organization’s International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision authorized it.
In July 2023, PATH and the Serum Institute of India collaborated for 13 years to create the MenFive vaccine, which was prequalified by the WHO.
It is the only vaccination that offers defence against meningococcal serogroup X, and it protects against the five main serogroups of meningococcal meningitis that affect Africa: meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X.
The vaccination program, which is aimed at about a million children in six local government areas in Jigawa state—Babura, Birniwa, Gagarawa, Gumel, Maigatari, and Sule Tankarkar—aims to combat the ongoing meningococcus C outbreak.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, expressed its commitment to working closely with the Nigerian government, UNICEF, WHO, and other partners to support the response to the outbreak.
Meningitis is a severe infection of the meninges, causing various complications such as hearing loss, brain damage, seizures, limb loss, and death. It is transmitted through respiratory and throat secretions.
This development marks the beginning of Gavi’s support for a multivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MMCV) program.
The MenFive vaccine will be integrated into health systems, addressing outbreaks, routine immunization, and catch-up campaigns in high-risk countries.
Gavi’s extensive efforts in vaccination against meningitis A have been instrumental in defeating meningitis A in Africa, with no new cases reported since 2017.
The addition of MenFive to the toolkit offers the prospect of combating other circulating serogroups, further strengthening global efforts against meningitis outbreaks.
Gavi, known for funding global stockpiles of vaccines against various diseases, supports outbreak response campaigns in lower-income countries, with vaccine requests managed by the World Health Organization’s ICG on Vaccine Provision.