The Navrongo Health Research Centre has put prospectus in place to commence a meningitis carriage surveillance on Northern Ghana which is part of the “African Meningitis belt”.
The study comes after hypothesis indicated that children between the ages of 5 to 14 are the primary carriers and transmitters of meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccine serotypes and targeted vaccination campaigns will significantly control the high-risk of acute bacterial meningitis in communities.
The two-year project which has been in a preparatory stage for over 2 years will see two cross sectional surveys conducted in communities of Northern Ghana between the months of January and April of 2022 and 2023. The months of January to April and considered as the seasons which meningitis outbreak is at its peak in Northern Ghana.
Using the Demographic Surveillance System managed by NHRC, the study will determine the prevalence of the pneumococcus and the meningococcus in selected communities through molecular and microbiologic testing of specimens of 1,216 eligible participants (children) both between the ages of 5 to 9 and 10 to 14 and thereafter compare the results to 250 immunized children aged 1 to 5 and individuals 15 years and above.
These surveys when completed are expected to provide more accurate estimates of the prevalence of the pneumococcus and the meningococcus as well as possible immunity to these infections in the selected outbreak prone areas. This will serve as grounds for a more involving effort in funding controlled randomized trials of targeted vaccination campaigns among older children in the bid to eradicate meningitis outbreaks in Africa’s meningitis prone areas.