From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has facilitated the procurement and shipment of 1,043,377 doses of first-ever use of new MenFive meningitis vaccine to Nigeria, making it the first country to receive the new MenFive vaccine from the Gavi-funded global stockpile.
A statement from Gavi, on Thursday, indicated that Nigeria received the new MenFive vaccine consignment from the Gavi-funded global stockpile, with a shipment delivered by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) arriving Nigeria on Wednesday evening.
Gavi further explained that the MenFive vaccine, developed through a 13-year collaboration between PATH and Serum Institute of India, with support from the United Kingdom government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, received World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification in July 2023.
It confirmed that the vaccine protects against the five main serogroups of meningococcal meningitis impacting Africa, meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X. It is the only vaccine that protects against serogroup X.
Dr. Tokunbo Oshin, Director of High Impact Countries at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in the statement said, “with outbreaks of infectious diseases on the rise worldwide, innovations such as MenFive are critical in helping us fight back.
“Thanks to vaccines, we have eliminated large and disruptive outbreaks of meningitis A in Africa. Now we have a tool to respond to other meningococcal meningitis serogroups that still cause large outbreaks resulting in long-term disability and deaths.”
He reaffirmed that Gavi will work closely with the Nigerian government as well as partners such as UNICEF and WHO to support the response to outbreaks.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance funds the global stockpiles of vaccines against cholera, Ebola, meningitis and yellow fever, and supports outbreak response campaigns in lower-income countries.
However, Country requests to these stockpiles are managed by WHO’s International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision which approved the deployment of 1,043,377 doses of MenFive in response to Nigeria’s request.