1st ever resolution on meningitis prevention and control by WHA

At the 73rd Session of the World Health Assembly, Member States overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution calling for urgent action on meningitis prevention and control through the implementation of a bold, comprehensive global roadmap to defeat meningitis by 2030.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

Meningitis is a serious infection of the meninges, the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

The disease can be caused by many different pathogens including bacteria, fungi or viruses, but the highest global burden is seen with bacterial meningitis.

Several different bacteria can cause meningitis. Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis are the most frequent ones. N. meningitidis, causing meningococcal meningitis, is the one with the potential to produce large epidemics.

The bacteria that cause meningitis are transmitted from person-to-person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions from carriers.

Despite successful efforts to control meningitis in several regions of the world, meningitis continues to be a major global public health issue causing up to 5 million cases each year.

The meningitis belt in Africa is the most vulnerable to recurrent outbreaks, but meningitis kills people of all ages in all countries.

The Defeating Meningitis Roadmap addresses all types of meningitis, regardless of the cause, but particularly targets the main causes of acute bacterial meningitis (meningococcus, pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, and group B streptococcus).