Every year over 50,000 babies under the age of one die of meningitis in Sub-Saharan Africa. These funds are now helping to find ways to protect them.
We were thrilled to have children’s author Michael Rosen speak on Radio 4 to appeal for funds for a vital meningitis research project. Our Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Appeal raised an incredible £18,374 and we are extremely grateful to Michael and to every listener that donated. This has initiated a vital research project in The Gambia – one of a number of African countries prone to devastating meningitis epidemics.
Meningitis and septicaemia are deadly diseases that strike without warning. To survive you need immediate, urgent medical treatment in hospital. But diagnosis is difficult, and it’s too risky to rely only on rapid treatment, especially in developing countries where hospitals can be too far away. That’s why preventing meningitis through vaccination is so important.
There has been huge progress by immunising some age groups in African countries, but new-born babies are the most vulnerable and they are not given vaccines because they don’t have a strong immune response to them. The researchers aim to protect babies by providing vaccines for pregnant women. This will protect the women and the hope is this protection will be passed from mother to baby across the placenta or breast milk. This would be lifesaving for new-borns who are too young to be protected directly. The funds from this appeal will fund the field workers who will visit new-borns to check that this method of ‘vaccination’ is working.
We’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has donated.
You can find out more about the charity .