“For at least a century outbreaks of meningitis have swept across a swathe of Africa running from Senegal to Ethiopia, killing tens of thousands of people every few years.

Desert winds, dust storms, and fragile health systems mean the bacteria that cause the disease can infect people more easily, causing regular epidemics in what’s known as the meningitis belt.

If not treated, this type of bacterial meningitis can kill within hours. One in six who catch it will die and many survivors suffer complications like hearing loss, brain damage and amputations.

Scientists have been battling to break the cycle for decades, but have had only limited success – largely because meningococcal disease is not just caused by one type of bacterium, but many.

But they may now have a new weapon in their arsenal. Along the belt, countries have begun rolling out a five-in-one vaccine that targets the varieties of Neisseria meningitidis bacteria that are responsible for almost all epidemic meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is the first major breakthrough since the MenAfriVac vaccination was introduced in 2010, which proved highly effective against serogroup A, effectively eliminating the leading cause of meningitis and saving millions of lives.

The new jab, called Men5CV, protects against four more serogroups – C, Y, W and X – and experts are hailing it as the next milestone towards the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal of eliminating epidemic meningitis by 2030.

The vaccine is already being rolled out in Niger and Nigeria, while Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Chad and Togo all have plans to introduce it in the coming months.”

From Telegraph.