According to a new study published in the journal Vaccine, the first mass vaccination campaign conducted in Africa using a vaccine not subject to constant refrigeration provided complete coverage. The MenAfriVac vaccine, used to protect against deadly meningitis A, was kept outside of the cold chain for up to four days and stayed viable even in temperatures up to 102°F (39°C).
Conducted as part of a ten-day meningitis A vaccination campaign in Benin in November 2012, the study represents a breakthrough not only for MenAfriVac, but potentially for increasing the efficiency, coverage, and affordability of other vaccines. The approach could significantly reduce the workloads of health workers, who spend vast amounts of time ensuring that vaccines are kept cold, the study found. It could also extend vaccines to areas that are so far removed from access to electricity they could never be reached by the cold chain.
In addition, a separate study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation on the economic benefits of this approach found that the costs of administering the MenAfriVac vaccine could drop by 50%.
"Finding solutions to reducing the cost and logistical challenges of reaching people living in remote areas would remove a major constraint to achieving universal coverage with vaccines beyond MenAfriVac. Indeed, a similar approach is being explored with the manufacturers of other vaccines, such as the yellow fever or the oral cholera vaccines," said Michel Zaffran, coordinator of WHO's expanded programme on immunisation and former director of Optimize, the WHO-PATH collaboration aimed at improving immunisation systems and technologies.
The MenAfriVac vaccine was developed through the meningitis vaccine project, a partnership between PATH and the World Health Organisation. It used a unique vaccine development model that aimed at providing an effective, affordable, and long-term solution to epidemic meningitis in the African meningitis belt, a large area that stretches across the continent from Senegal to Ethiopia. Over the past century, hundreds of thousands of people were killed or permanently disabled by the cyclical epidemics of meningitis A, many of them children or young adults.
"Findings from these new studies show that it is possible to deliver vaccines more conveniently and at a lower cost when refrigeration is not needed every step of the way," said Dr. David C. Kaslow, vice president of product development at PATH. "MenAfriVac is helping to show a less expensive, simpler, and more convenient way for other current and future lifesaving vaccines to get to the hardest to reach people in need."
This piece originally appeared on the PATH blog.
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