The 8th meeting was held from Tuesday 13th – Thursday 15th December 2022, chaired by Professor Brian Greenwood (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - UK) and Professor Samba Sow (Centre for Vaccine Development - Mali). Some 40 Members and WHO staff discussed global updates, regional and country implementation, operationalizing country support, product development and guidelines, surveillance, the investment case to defeat meningitis, and advocacy activities.
Among the collaborative discussions led by members of the Taskforce, the following presentations provided by partners and WHO regional focal points were some of the highlights:
- Country-based development of a regional implementation framework to defeat meningitis: the PAHO experience
- Strengthening linkages between the disability agenda and defeating meningitis road map at global and country levels: challenges and opportunities
- The Global Meningitis Genome Partnership
- Development of national plans to defeat meningitis: process and material, the experience of AFRO
- The MenMap project; strengthening the surveillance of invasive bacterial infections in North Africa and the Middle East
- Improving diagnosis, treatment and management of acute brain injuries
- Health promotion and access to care in Chad
- Financial access to quality health care National health insurance scheme in Ghana: coverage for malaria and for meningitis
"A lot has happened over the past few years, including integration of meningitis control into primary health care and, promotion of standard care packages for the diagnosis and management of meningitis. The year 2023 should see the realization of these promising advances and generation of the financial support needed to sustain them" said Professor Brian Greenwood, Technical Taskforce chair.
"There is a need for country advocacy and communications plans and community-based efforts, the key to success will be listening to what the countries themselves need and want" said Professor Samba Sow, Technical Taskforce co-chair.
"The roadmap will have benefits beyond meningitis control, by strengthening immunization programmes, global health security, access to disability support and primary health care. The COVID-19 pandemic is a demonstration of the world's ability to respond to global health threats with innovation and determination. With the same innovation and determination, defeating meningitis is within our reach. Let's act now," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization.
