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About the Authors:
Sara Tartof
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Amanda Cohn
Affiliation: Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Félix Tarbangdo
Affiliation: Direction de la Lutte Contre la Maladie, Ministère de la Santé, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Mamoudou H. Djingarey
Affiliation: Intercountry Support Team for West Africa, World Health Organization, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Nancy Messonnier
Affiliation: Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Thomas A. Clark
Affiliation: Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Jean Ludovic Kambou
Affiliation: Direction de la Lutte Contre la Maladie, Ministère de la Santé, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Ryan Novak
Affiliation: Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Fabien V. K. Diomandé
Affiliations Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, WHO Intercountry Support Team for West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Isaïe Medah
Affiliation: Direction de la Lutte Contre la Maladie, Ministère de la Santé, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Michael L. Jackson
Affiliation: Group Health Research Institute, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, Washington, United States of America
Introduction
The greatest burden of meningococcal disease worldwide occurs in an area of sub-Saharan Africa known as the meningitis belt, which stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east [1]. Major epidemics of meningococcal meningitis have occurred in this region for more than 100 years, where the epidemiology is characterized by localized annual minor epidemics as well as major epidemic waves every eight to twelve years [2], [3]. Epidemics occur during dry seasons which run from December through May and incidence declines predictably with the onset of rains in the rainy season [4]. Most cases occur in persons between 1 and 29 years of age and approximately 90% of cases during epidemics are caused by serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (MenA) [5]–[8]. Bacteria are transmitted from person-to-person through droplets of respiratory or throat secretions, primarily from asymptomatic carriers. Invasive disease is a rare...