One in five people who get meningitis and survive will go on to experience disability. We estimate there are more than 11 million people alive today around the world living with such after effects, including deafness, neurological impairment and limb loss.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Road Map to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 brought this to people’s attention when it was approved at the World Health Assembly in 2020. We were reminded of this again when a new resolution on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2022. In that, meningitis is identified as the 4th largest global contributor to Disability Adjusted Life Years lost (a way to measure years of healthy life lost to a condition) to neurological conditions in 2016.
The tragedy of losing more than 235,000 people each year to meningitis is therefore compounded by the ongoing impact for the millions of people experiencing disability because of the same, terrible disease. Meningitis is a serious disability issue.
Meningitis, disability and the cost of living
Now consider this. If you contract meningitis and have a disability in the UK, Scope recognises you are part of a wider group of people for whom, “Life costs more … on essential goods and services like; heating, insurance, equipment and therapies. These extra costs mean disabled people have less money in their pocket than non-disabled people, or simply go without.”
And that was written in 2019 - before COVID, before rising inflation and before Ukraine. This is what has happened since.
The Office for National Statistics found that, “Among people who indicated coronavirus affected their well-being, disabled people more frequently than non-disabled people specified that the coronavirus was making their mental health worse (46% for disabled people and 29% for non-disabled people), they are feeling like a burden on others (25% and 10%), they are feeling stressed and anxious (67% and 54%) or they are feeling lonely (49% and 37%). Disabled people had on average poorer well-being ratings than non-disabled people across all four well-being measures (life satisfaction, feeling that things done in life are worthwhile, happiness and anxiety).”
On top of COVID, rising inflation, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, could result in a 3% real cut in benefits year on year. Many people who are disabled will receive benefits. And as well as this happening in the UK, the squeeze on living standards is happening around the world1.
Ukraine, health provision and meningitis
And then war breaks out in Ukraine.
Even before the war with Russia, Ukraine was already estimated to experience the second highest number of deaths from meningitis and fifth highest number of cases in WHO’s European region, coming in the top third of countries globally2.
Health services, including vaccinations and hospital care, have been tragically disrupted, most likely making meningitis cases and deaths worse (and this is on top of the daily tragedy of war we have all been watching unfold). Outbreaks of meningitis are often associated with refugee communities3 and more than 5.2 million Ukrainians are already on the move4. In 2019, it is estimated over 55,000 years of healthy life were lost to meningitis in Ukraine5.
The war with Russia is also a contributory factor in rising energy prices, which are adding to a rise in inflation. Restrictions on global wheat supplies – Ukraine supplies around 10% of global wheat – are contributing to higher food costs and inflation.
Three responses that make sense
Despite the enormity of these complex and interrelated elements there are only three responses that makes sense for our work on meningitis.
Firstly, to accelerate - not hold back on - efforts and funding for the implementation of the WHO’s Global Road Map to Defeat Meningitis by 2030. This is a comprehensive and compelling plan that cannot flounder in the face of highly challenging global environments.
Secondly, to encourage governments and treasuries the world over to use the same ingenuity applied to financial tools of support allowed during the early phases of the COVID pandemic to ensure that the disabled, including those with disabilities because of meningitis, are not forgotten. On average disabled people already started in a place of disadvantage back in 2019. It would be inexcusable to allow circumstances beyond their control to double-down on this situation.
Finally, to remember that every statistic is a person. The story here is not numbers, but people. Mothers, fathers, children, and friends. You cannot hug a number, worry for a number, or have a decimal point of a person. Everyone is unique. Everyone is worth remembering.
Vinny Smith, Chief Executive,
Meningitis Research Foundation
- 1. theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/10/the-rise-in-global-inflation-the-hit-to-living-standards-across-the-world
- 2. meningitis.org/mpt
- 3. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7746237/
- 4 .https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60555472
- 5. meningitis.org/mpt