GROUP SEES POSSIBLE MENINGITIS VACCINE SHORTAGE

An official with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has told the U.N.'s Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) that efforts to control a meningitis outbreak in Uganda could be hindered by a vaccine shortage.

According to MSF, sanofi pasteur is the only producer of the vaccine, and the company announced that it is stopping production while it transfers the manufacturing capabilities to another site. "It is extremely worrying when you consider that in Nigeria in 1996, more than 13 million people had to be vaccinated over the course of that epidemic," Guillaume le Duc, MSF press officer, told IRIN.

MSF said that the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision for Epidemic Meningitis Control, which coordinates use of the meningitis vaccine, has only 7 million doses in stock, IRIN reports.

"In Uganda, already up to a million doses have been used, while outbreaks have been reported in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and in southern Sudan," Le Duc told IRIN. He added that he doubts the world's ability to meet the needed meningitis vaccine capacity.