A revolutionary meningitis vaccine will reach the 100 millionth person this week in a region of Africa that has been plagued by deadly epidemics for more than a century. The milestone will take place in northern Nigeria, part of Africa’s “meningitis belt,”where the country is conducting its second seasonal immunisation campaign against the disease.

The historic achievement comes two years after the MenAfriVac vaccine was first launched in Burkina Faso. Since then, nine other countries have held vaccination campaigns to protect people from ages 1 to 29 against meningitis A.

Nigeria will vaccinate 16 million people over the next two weeks and Cameroon and Chad are also conducting immunisation campaigns this week targeting 5.5 million and 2.3 million people respectively. By the end of this year, the vaccine will have reached more than 112 million people, providing widespread and long-awaited protection.

The achievement will be recognised at the GAVI Alliance Partners’ Forum, which is bringing together developing countries, donors, civil society, technical and research institutes, health agencies, and the vaccine industry this week in Dar es Salaam, the capital of the United Republic of Tanzania.

“When we began developing this vaccine, we knew how desperately it was needed, and we hoped it would quickly provide relief for the many people who dread sub-Saharan Africa’s meningitis season,” said Steve Davis, president and CEO of PATH, which partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create MenAfriVac. “We are so proud to see African countries quickly embrace this vaccine and to see that deadly and debilitating meningitis cases have virtually disappeared in the regions that have been vaccinated.”

“This milestone has been achieved thanks to the commitment of national governments and support from WHO and other partners,” said Dr Flavia Bustreo, WHO assistant director-general for family, women, and children’s health. “We must continue our efforts to implement vaccination campaigns in the remaining meningitis belt countries and ensure widespread uptake of the MenAfriVac vaccine.”

“Meningitis is a terrible disease which kills young people, creates severe neurological damage in many survivors, and devastates communities,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, which is providing funding for the vaccines being used in the campaigns. “It is nothing short of remarkable that exactly two years after the first GAVI-funded meningitis vaccination campaign in the meningitis belt, the 100 millionth will have their life protected.”

“The development of MenAfriVac as a low-cost vaccine was critically important for the global health community,” said Chris Elias, president of Global Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Vaccines work to save and improve lives and the speed with which the governments in meningitis-affected countries have introduced this new vaccine to protect young people is exemplary.”

“Meningitis A epidemics have affected the poorest families in countries of the Sahel, in the worst cases killing one third of the affected community,” said Geeta Rao Gupta, deputy executive director of UNICEF. “But now campaigns are bringing hope to the poor families of previously unreached communities, which are mobilising their members around this safe, effective and affordable vaccine.”

Seasonal meningitis A epidemics threaten the lives of 450 million people living in the meningitis belt, which stretches through 26 countries from Gambia in the west to Eritrea in the east. The disease causes a painful inflammation of the lining around the brain and the spine that can kill people within 24 to 48 hours. Those who survive often face severe learning difficulties, deafness, or amputated limbs. Children and young adults are most at risk.

In the largest-ever seasonal epidemic in Africa’s history, in 1996-1997, meningitis A infected 250,000 people and killed 25,000. In 1997, African ministers of health appealed to WHO and other partners to find a lasting solution to the dreadful disease.

In 2001, PATH and WHO formed the Meningitis Vaccine Project to develop a vaccine that would tackle the meningococcus strain that causes meningitis A at a price that African countries could afford. Historically, new vaccines have either not been designed to cover variants of diseases found in developing countries or have been too expensive for developing countries to include in their immunisation schedules. The partners worked with the Serum Institute of India Ltd. to develop and manufacture the vaccine at a cost of less than US$ 0.50 per dose.

The vaccine has already significantly reduced the burden of meningitis in the regions where it has been introduced. In Burkina Faso, which launched the inaugural MenAfriVac campaign in December 2010, there were no cases of meningitis A among those who were vaccinated.

“This vaccine is having a tremendous impact on the lives of people in some of the world’s most vulnerable towns and villages,” Berkley said. “The partners involved in developing this vaccine deserve tremendous credit for ensuring the right vaccine is available at the right price.”

On October 31, 2012, MenAfriVac received approval to be kept outside the cold chain for up to four days at up to 40°C, in a controlled temperature chain (CTC). MenAfriVac is the first vaccine intended for use in Africa approved for this type of use, potentially setting a regulatory path that other heat-stable vaccines can follow.

Cold chain limitations have posed logistical challenges for MenAfriVac® and other vaccine programmes, increasing programme costs, delaying roll-outs, limiting access to “last mile” communities and allowing outbreaks to continue. Benin launched the pilot project using the new CTC approach during its rollout of the vaccine November 15 to 25.

Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan, Ghana, Benin, and Senegal have all conducted campaigns with the MenAfriVac® vaccine since its introduction in 2010.

The GAVI Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing access to immunisation in developing countries.

PATH is an international nonprofit organization that transforms global health through innovation.