In late 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its Defeating meningitis by 2030 global road map. This aims to reduce the huge burden of death and disability that meningitis causes around the world.
The roadmap targets for the four leading causes of meningitis – group B Strep is the only one of these causes for which there is (currently) no vaccine.
But group B Strep is the leading cause of meningitis in babies under 90 days old, and defeating group B Strep is key to defeating meningitis.
On April 26 2024, at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, the WHO held their first high-level meeting focused on meningitis. The meeting’s purpose was to launch the investment case for the roadmap. It was attended by governments, international institutions, civil society representatives and advocates.
Our CEO, Jane Plumb MBE, was in Paris for the event and was delighted to see this commitment to action:
“It was a privilege to be invited to this meeting and a joy to hear speaker after speaker say that yes, we can defeat meningitis by 2030.
It needs everyone working together – experts, governments, advocates, charities and those with lived experience.
And it needs a group B Strep vaccine if we’re truly going to defeat meningitis.
But we can do this and save so many families from the unimaginable grief and suffering that preventable disease brings.”
