Burkina Faso news and features

The GAVI Alliance celebrated the accomplishments of 12 countries in increasing access to immunisation during a ceremony last night at the GAVI Partners’ Forum. The ceremony was hosted by the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Tanzanian radio host Taji Liunn.

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.

GAVI statement in response to the latest interim data on the trial of malaria vaccine candidate RTS,S published by Glaxosmithkline and Path malaria vaccine initiative.

13 countries receive awards; government leaders, parliamentarians and civil society groups receive special recognitions

New York-based Women Deliver highlights potential benefits of HPV vaccine for as many as 28 million girls in developing countries by 2020. [日本語]

Interview with Muhammad Sani Adamu, Head of Accelerated Disease Control in Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency, who played a key role in rolling out the new vaccine against meningitis A, MenAfriVac, to Nigeria’s northern states.

One of the first countries to introduce the new meningitis A vaccine (MenAfriVac), Chad ran an immunisation campaign with GAVI support in December 2011 to help eliminate the region’s devastating epidemics.

A record 50 GAVI eligible countries have applied for vaccine funding from the GAVI Alliance during the organisation’s latest application round, reported GAVI officials today.

Developing nations are making increasing financial commitments to the cost of childhood immunisation, a key foundation for social and economic development, the GAVI Alliance said ahead of a pledging conference on 13 June. [French] [German]

MenAfriVac, a new vaccine against Meningococcal Meningitis seroptype Nm A, is expected to prevent meningitis epidemics in Africa's "meningitis belt" of 25 countries that stretch from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.