Meningitis Global Roadmap meeting

Epicentre participated in 'Defeating meningitis by 2030 – developing a global roadmap', a meeting sponsored by the World Health Organization and the Meningitis Research Foundation in Wilton Park, UK, between 27 February and 1 March, 2019. At the meeting experts and stakeholders from around the world outline priority areas for research and enhanced control activities, with goals and specific solutions. Over the next couple of years this effort should culminate in a global roadmap with clear milestones.

Epicentre has supported MSF as it responds to meningitis epidemics in the field by carrying out outbreak investigation and epidemic description. In recent years, efforts have particularly focused on a newly-emerged strain of meningococcus called Serogroup C that has been responsible for large epidemics in Niger and Nigeria. Recent research studies have included a case-control study to evaluate the effectiveness of meningococcal vaccines in Niamey, and a cluster randomized trial that showed that providing single-dose village-wide antibiotic prophylaxis reduced the number of cases by 60% during an epidemic.