CHARITY TO MAKE TYPHOID VACCINE MORE WIDELY AVAILABLE IN LIBERIA

The West African Children Support Network (WACSN), a Liberia-based charity group, plans to make typhoid fever vaccinations available to children in the country, beginning in September of this year. Along with malaria, yellow fever and HIV/AIDS, typhoid is one of the leading causes of death in Liberia, particularly in the country's rural areas.

Ernest Urey, the group's executive director, commented that four out of 10 Liberians are currently infected with the disease, and vowed to change this statistic. Typhoid, which is caused by the human-specific bacterium Salmonella Typhi and is easily transmissible via drinking water and food, is particularly deadly to children and those with weakened immune systems.

There are two widely used typhoid vaccines that will be offered by the WACSN --Vivotif, and oral vaccine, which contains a live but weakened strain of the salmonella bacteria that causes the disease; and Typhim Vi, a single-dose injection that contains the capsular polysaccharide antigen.