How long will it take to eliminate epidemic group A meningococcal meningitis in Africa?
It is not possible to give a precise date. However, what we can say at this point is that using mass vaccination (catch-up) campaigns, where a large part of the population is vaccinated at one time, in addition to Expanded Programme on Immunization or follow-up vaccination campaigns, will accelerate the process. We estimate that it will take about 10 years to eliminate meningitis epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa—that is, the estimated time to do the catch-up campaigns in hyperendemic countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, the nine northern states of Nigeria, and Sudan). Community immunity is expected to be so high at that point that we won’t see any meningococcal A epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa.
