Kwambana-Adams, BA;
Cohen, AL;
Hampton, L;
Nhantumbo, AA;
Heyderman, RS;
Antonio, M;
Bita, A;
(2021)
Toward Establishing Integrated, Comprehensive, and Sustainable Meningitis Surveillance in Africa to Better Inform Vaccination Strategies.
The Journal of Infectious Diseases
, 224
(3)
S299-S306.
10.1093/infdis/jiab268.
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Abstract
Large populations across sub-Saharan Africa remain at risk of devastating acute bacterial meningitis epidemics and endemic disease. Meningitis surveillance is a cornerstone of disease control, essential for describing temporal changes in disease epidemiology, the rapid detection of outbreaks, guiding vaccine introduction and monitoring vaccine impact. However, meningitis surveillance in most African countries is weak, undermined by parallel surveillance systems with little to no synergy and limited laboratory capacity. African countries need to implement comprehensive meningitis surveillance systems to adapt to the rapidly changing disease trends and vaccine landscapes. The World Health Organization and partners have developed a new investment case to restructure vaccine-preventable disease surveillance. With this new structure, countries will establish comprehensive and sustainable meningitis surveillance systems integrated with greater harmonization between population-based and sentinel surveillance systems. There will also be stronger linkage with existing surveillance systems for vaccine-preventable diseases, such as polio, measles, yellow fever, and rotavirus, as well as with other epidemic-prone diseases to leverage their infrastructure, transport systems, equipment, human resources and funding. The implementation of these concepts is currently being piloted in a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa with support from the World Health Organization and other partners. African countries need to take urgent action to improve synergies and coordination between different surveillance systems to set joint priorities that will inform action to control devastating acute bacterial meningitis effectively.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Toward Establishing Integrated, Comprehensive, and Sustainable Meningitis Surveillance in Africa to Better Inform Vaccination Strategies |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/infdis/jiab268 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab268 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Surveillance, Acute bacterial meningitis, Sub-Saharan Africa, African meningitis belt, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria Meningitidis, vaccines |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Infection and Immunity |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135343 |
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