Meningitis:W.H.O Developes A Pentavalent Vaccine Called Men5CV Targeting All Serotypes — Emmanuel

Añadido: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]Well, let's now go to Sokoto state and away from insecurity to where 34 deaths have now been reported and 254 cases of cerebral meningitis across nine local government areas. Health Commissioner Dr. Farouk Abubakar Runo says most deaths happen at home due to delays in seeking care, but 201 people treated at isolation centers have been discharged.

[00:00:27]Meanwhile, Katsina has confirmed more than 105 cases prompting authorities to intensify measures to contain the outbreak. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency also listed Katsina among 12 northern states at risk due to extreme heat warning that temperatures could hit 40°C to 45°C creating conditions where the disease spreads faster in crowded, poorly ventilated areas. The Nigerian Center for Disease Control has also issued a public health advisory warning that the dry season increases risk in states within the African meningitis belt. It urges vigilance and early treatment noting that bacterial meningitis can be fatal within hours if not caught early.

[00:01:17]Well, we have Dr. Ezra Emmanuel. He's the Deputy Director Meningitis Technical Working Group uh Department of Planning, Research, and Statistics, Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

[00:01:30]Well, he joins us to discuss the outbreak of meningitis in Nigeria. Uh good to have you on on News Night. Um I mean, would you say that over the years, in the last maybe 5 years, the case numbers have been increasing and fatalities also? Or would you say there's been some kind of improvement based on maybe uh you know, public enlightenment and what have you?

[00:01:57]Okay, thank you very much. So, indeed [clears throat] the last 2 years, which is 2023-2024 season, we By this time we had recorded over 3,000 cases, suspected cases by this time of the year cumulatively. So, 2024-2025 season, which is the immediate past season for now, by this time we had recorded close to 5,000 cases.

[00:02:29]With Yobe State alone having over 8,000 suspected cases. And this year, thankfully, the numbers are still below 1,000 cumulatively. So, looking at that, we can say that the cases are not actually really increasing. They seem to have come down a little this current year.

[00:02:56]And then, okay, that's good news. But unfortunately, we're still recording deaths.

[00:03:00]Children are dying despite this being a recurring [clears throat] disease. And that brings me to the question of vaccination and prevention. Because every year we hear about vaccines being deployed during outbreaks. Why is it that Nigeria is still struggling with this meningitis? Yes, it's related to heat.

[00:03:20]I wonder if that's is correct or it's still it's a myth. I also want you to speak to that, particularly with climate change. And we're having hotter temperatures, so that's one. But on the other hand is vaccination and prevention. How come we deal with this every year, but we still have to lose children to it?

[00:03:38]Okay, thank you very much. So, as you rightly [clears throat] appointed out, vaccination is the most definitive response or intervention against vaccine-preventable diseases or other infectious infectious diseases. So, um before now what what used to um cause the highest mortality and morbidity as as far as the bacterial meningitis is concerned is a serotype called Neisseria meningitidis serotype A.

[00:04:12]That was back in the years before 2014 or thereabouts.

[00:04:16]So, it used to uh outbreaks used to dominate the outbreak space. And then and Nigeria responded by uh introducing the vaccine against that called MenAfriVac.

[00:04:30]That is against that particular serotype. Yeah. And over time that um serotype has gone down. So, the uh dominant pathogen now is uh the serotype C.

[00:04:46]And uh that uh vaccine against uh serotype A first of all it was uh it came through campaigns and then it was routinized meaning that our children get it as part of uh routine immunization in the hospital uh within the first 5 years of their lives.

[00:05:08]>> Yeah. So, the major one of the some of the bacteria cause meningitis, Streptococcus pneumoniae Haemophilus influenzae type B and Neisseria meningitidis serotype A are all in our routine vaccination.

[00:05:27]>> Okay. But uh you know with climate change I don't know uh emerging emerging and re-emerging diseases Mhm.

[00:05:35]this serotype C is now the dominant pathogen. In fact, if you look at our confirmations over 90% of all the confirmations are the serotype.

[00:05:46]>> In this current outbreak? Yes, even the last two years, even the last In fact, as a matter of fact, since 20 uh 15 or 16, no uh case of zero type A has been confirmed anywhere. So, the dominant pathogen now is zero type C and a few of X and W.

[00:06:06]So, uh the global community, WHO and Nigeria indeed, has come out with um a pentavalent vaccine called uh Men5CV. It is five antigens in one uh vaccine. In one vaccine. Targeting A, C, W, Y, X zero types of the Neisseria meningitidis organism. Uh since the 2024, this world first that was introduced, how effectively has it been in the fight against meningitis? Indeed, we can say it is effective. Because if you look at the places where uh outbreaks are occurring now, they're not occurring in the local government areas where these antigens or where these uh vaccines were deployed. They're not occurring in other local governments that have not uh benefited from this uh vaccination.

[00:07:03]>> [snorts] >> Guess we have to leave it there. Would have been nice to find out, you know, how to manage it and and all of that.

[00:07:08]But Dr. Isa Emmanuel, Deputy Director, Lead Meningitis Technical Working Group at the NCDC, thank you very much for joining [music] us on News Night. Thank you so much.