BY SATURDAY, so the weather forecasters predicted earlier this week, London will again be basking in near African temperatures. However, the night air will not be resounding to sounds of African wildlife, but to that of the performers at the Live 8 concert.
Inevitably, when it was first proposed there was opposition to the concert on various grounds, ranging from the damage it will do to the park, to the noise that the residents will have to bear.
One criticism that may have more long-term ill effects was that the publicity for the concert relied heavily on the generalisation that we in the wicked West took little interest in those who are living in Africa.
Right on cue, The Lancet this week has included an account of the immunisation programme in the Gambia that helps to refute the alleged indifference of the West. The Medical Research Council (MRC) led a scheme that has successfully eliminated Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease in children in the country.
All European mothers know this form of haemophilus as it is the cause of Hib meningitis. The introduction of the injection against it removed one of the causes of meningitis in this continent that causes every parent of children under 5 such anxiety. Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturers of Hib vaccine, and the World Health Organisation supported the Gambian programme.
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Haemophilus influenzae type b is also responsible for another frightening disease of childhood, epiglottitis. When this strikes, the epiglottis, which is part of the throat, may swell up alarmingly. The child is terrified and is unable to get its breath as spit and other discharges collect in the throat. The temperature rises alarmingly and the child’s life is at stake.
Haemophilus influenzae type b may also cause pneumonia and other lower respiratory infections. It is mainly a problem for the under-fives, but people of any age whose resistance has been reduced by sickle cell anaemia, chronic disease of the spleen, alcoholism or some malignancies are also at risk.
The Gambian programme of Hib vaccination so reduced the incidence of the diseases it causes that the rate of meningitis dropped from over 200 in every 100,000 at the start to 21 in every 100,000 after two years of immunisation, and to nothing by the end of the fifth year.
Dr Richard Adegbola, of the MRC, who led the study, said that Hib disease has been eradicated in developed countries for two decades, but many developing countries are still reluctant to introduce routine vaccination. “We hope that other countries in sub- Sahara will now be encouraged to adopt a routine Hib immunisation policy.”