African meningitis belt pneumococcal disease epidemiology indicates a need for an effective serotype 1 containing vaccine, including for older children and adults

Table 1 Characteristics of evaluated countries.

Characteristic	Burkina Faso*	Senegal*	Niger*	Ghana*
Surveillance design	Prospective	Retrospective	Retrospective	Prospective
Geographic extent	Three districts	Dakar	Niamey	Northern area
Surveillance population	880,000	950,000	550,000	140,000
Rural/Urban	Both	Urban	Urban	Rural
Study years	2002-2005	1970-1979	1981-1996	1998-2003
Microbiological methods	Culture, antigen detection, PCR	Culture	Culture, antigen detection	Culture, antigen detection
Number of confirmed pneumococcal meningitis cases	249	983	934	76
Percent of cases occurring during dry/epidemic season months of Dec-Apr^†	75%	49%	63%	69%
Two months with peak number of cases (percent of total)^†	Jan-Feb (38%)	Feb-Mar (21%)	Feb-Mar (31%)	Dec-Jan (35%)
Relation of pneumococcal to meningococcal seasonal peak	Similar	2 months in advance	1 month in advance	1 to 2 months in advance
13-valent conjugate vaccine coverage of isolated serotypes
Age <5 years	67%	78% (age<2 yrs)	No serotype data	100%
Age 5+ years	77%	94% (age 2+ yrs)	No serotype data	98%
Reference	4,5	9	8	7

* Human immunodeficiency virus prevalence in pregnant women age 15-24 years in capital city: Burkina Faso 2.3% (2002), Ghana 3.9% (2003), Senegal 1.1% (2003). Adult HIV prevalence in Niger was 1.2% (2003). Website: http://www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2005_(English).pdf, last accessed October 2, 2008.
† In all studies cases per month were estimated from Figures as specific data were not presented.

ISSN: 1471-2334