Health workers in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - the three countries selected for introduction of the vaccine - are preparing for country-wide campaigns set for December, having just completed a limited pilot phase.
"This vaccine, which targets the bacterium [meningococcus A] most frequently causing epidemics, is about preventing epidemics, not waiting, then reacting," Mamoudou Harouna Djingarey of the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) in Burkina Faso told IRIN.
