Booking open for MRF conference

Day 1: Monday 1^st November

13.00-13.10
Welcome – Vinny Smith, CEO of Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) and Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO)

Impact of meningitis, patient experience and support and aftercare - Chair: Dr Senjuti Saha, Child Health Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh

13.10-13.35
Patient experience of meningitis and septicaemia in high and low to middle income regions – Jo Kirwin, UK member of MRF AND Adelaide Bortier, Ghana

13.35-14.00
Long-term impact of meningitis– what is known now and the research challenge for the Defeating Meningitis by 2030 Roadmap – Dr Nicoline Schiess, World Health Organization (WHO)

14.00-14.25
What follow up care after meningitis is expected, provided, and needed in high and low to middle income settings? – Professor Charles Newton, KEMRI Wellcome Trust and University of Oxford

14.25-14.40
BREAK

WHO Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 and allied initiatives - Chair: Professor James Stuart, WHO and University of Bristol

14.40-15.05
Implementing the Global Roadmap – how are we going to do it (including the research priorities within the global roadmap: what this means for the research community) – Dr Marie-Pierre Preziosi, WHO

15.05-15.30
Ending Cryptococcal Meningitis Deaths by 2030 – Strategic Framework – Professor Nelesh Govender, National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Johannesburg

15.30-15.55
Defeating Paediatric Tuberculous Meningitis: Applying the WHO “Defeating Meningitis by 2030: Global Roadmap” – Dr Robin Basu Roy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

15.55-16.10
BREAK

Lessons and impact for meningitis in the COVID-19 era – Chair and Moderator: Professor Adam Finn, University of Bristol

16.10-17:00
PANEL DISCUSSION - Will meningitis rebound as COVID restrictions end? What needs to happen next?

Panellists from around the world will take part in a discussion contrasting models predicting a prolonged herd protection effect from social distancing vs the immunity gap due to reduced immunisation and reduced natural acquisition/ boosting of immunity.

• Findings from the IRIS initiative, with a focus on Brazil, and commenting on the situation in Latin America - Professor Marco Safadi, Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences, Brazil

• African perspective on COVID impact - Professor Shabir Madhi, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

•  Models of COVID impact on meningitis infections - Dr Caroline Trotter, University of Cambridge:

  • The relative predicted effect of social distancing on carriage vs lower vaccine coverage on IMD and IPD in the UK, and

  • The potential impact of MenAfriVac disruption on meningococcal A infection

• The immunity gap in childhood due to the COVID-19 pandemic - Professor Muhamed-Kheir Taha, Institut Pasteur, Paris

Audience voting at the beginning and end on whether meningitis infections will rebound as Covid restrictions end

17:00-17:25
Using COVID vaccine technology to make faster, cheaper meningitis vaccines, and regulatory lessons from COVID- Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, University of Oxford

DAY 2: Tuesday 2^nd November

Improving data for meningitis: recognition, diagnosis and surveillance - closing the ascertainment gap between people affected and laboratory surveillance - Chair: Dr Anne von Gottberg, NICD, Johannesburg

13.00-13.25
Advocacy and awareness raising activity and the WHO Defeating Meningitis by 2030 Roadmap – Rob Dawson, Meningitis Research Foundation

13.25-13.50
Challenges and possible solutions to improving laboratory confirmation of bacterial meningitis – Dr André Bita, WHO

13.50-14.15
Developing and deploying RDTs for the main meningitis pathogens: where we are now and what’s happening next - Dr Xin Wang, Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

14.15-14.40
Distinguishing bacterial infections using a host signature: PERFORM- DIAMONDS studies – Dr Jethro Herberg, Imperial College London

14.40-15.05
Discriminatory host transcripts in the blood of adults with bacterial meningitis: TRIM study – Dr Mike Griffiths, University of Liverpool

15.05-15.20
BREAK

Genomics: the frontier of learning – Chair: Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust/LSHTM

15.20-15.45
Pneumococcal genomics, vaccines and AMR – Dr William Hanage, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

15.45-16.10
Hypervirulence and Group B Streptococcal Infection – Dr Odile Harrison, University of Oxford

16.10-16.25
How this will be made accessible through the Global Meningitis Genome Partnership – Professor Robert Heyderman, University College London

16:25-16:35
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION

16.35-16.45
BREAK

16.45-17:30
POSTER PRESENTATIONS – THREE PARALLEL SESSIONS

16.45
Track 1: Prevention – Chair: Professor Paul Heath, St George’s University of London

16.48-16.54
Identification of Neisseria meningitidis specific patient derived antibodies using reverse vaccinology 2.0 - Camilla Gladstone, Imperial College London

16.54-17.00
Changes in the epidemiology of invasive meningococcal diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany- Dr Manuel Krone, Wuerzburg University Hospital and German National Reference Laboratory for Neisseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae

17.00-17.06
Natural Immunity in the African Meningitis Belt to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup X: A Seroprevalence Study – Sara Katz, UK Health Security Agency

17.06-17.12
Neisseria lactamica induces anti-Neisseria meningitidis B cell responses- Dr Adam Dale, University of Southampton

17.12-17.18
Immunogenicity of a Single 4CMenB Vaccine Booster in Adolescents 11 Years After Childhood Immunisation - Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, University of Oxford

16.45 Track 2: Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment – Chair: Dr Anne von Gottberg, NICD, Johannesburg

16.48-16.54
Transcriptome analysis of CSF from meningitis patients identifies a novel Streptococcus pneumoniae operon that is essential for establishing brain infection – Dr Emma Wall, UCL

16.54-17.00
Modelling meningococcal A conjugate vaccine coverage in the meningitis belt from 2010 to 2019 - Rose Bender, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington

17.00-17.06
Phase 3 Trial of Safety, Tolerability and Immunogenicity of V114, 15-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine, Compared with 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Adults 50 Years of Age and Older (PNEU-AGE) – Andrew Tran, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD)

17.06-17.12
In silico evaluation of current PCR diagnostic targets for the molecular detection of bacterial meningitis – Dr Kanny Diallo, Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifique de Cote d’Ivoire, Abidjan

17.12-17.18
Meningococcal serogroup C (MenC) immune response of a novel tetanus toxoid conjugate quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine (MenACYW-TT) compared to a quadrivalent (MCV4-TT) or monovalent (MenC-TT) meningococcal vaccine in healthy meningococcal vaccine-naïve toddlers - Professor Markus Knuf, Children’s hospital, HSK, Dr. Horst Schmidt Klinik, Wiesbaden, Germany

16.45 Track 3: Surveillance, Support and Advocacy - Chair: Professor Beate Kampmann, LSHTM

16.48-16.54
Assessing 4CMenB strain coverage of invasive meningococcal strains in an English and Welsh vaccine-eligible cohort using non-culture draft genome sequences- Dr Stephen Clark, UK Health Security Agency

16.54-17.00
Changes in Pneumococcal Meningitis Incidence Following Introduction of PCV10 and PCV13: Results from the Global PSERENADE Project - Yangyupei Yang, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

17.00-17.06
Rapid Transmission of a Hyper-Virulent Meningococcal Clone Due to High Effective Contact Numbers and Super Spreaders- Jonathan Holmes, University of Leicester

17.06-17.12
Sequelae at hospital discharge in 49 children with invasive meningococcal disease, Chile, 2009-2019 – Dr Rodolfo Villena, University of Chile

17.12-17.18
MEVacP : a public engagement website about meningitis and vaccine policy – Dr Odile Harrison, University of Oxford

17.30 Award for best poster

17.30 - 17.40
Award for best poster

DAY 3: Wednesday 3^rd November

Prevention and epidemic control (1) – Chair: Professor Ray Borrow, UK Health Security Agency, Vaccine Evaluation Unit

9.00-9:10
Real-world evidence of 4CMenB vaccine effectiveness against meningococcal B disease and gonorrhoea in adolescents – Professor Helen Marshall, University of Adelaide

9:10-10.00
Combined with the above session

PANEL DISCUSSION: Potential for adolescent MenB immunisation programmes to control meningococcal B infection and gonorrhoea.

Moderator: Associate Professor Matthew Snape, University of Oxford

• Case for teenage MenB prevention - Professor Federico Martinón Torres, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago de Compostela, Spain

• Case for gonococcal prevention - Professor Cal MacLennan, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, University of Oxford and University of Birmingham

• WHO perspective - Dr Sami Gottlieb, WHO

• Health economics perspective - Dr Hannah Christensen, University of Bristol

• Follow up/Q&A from preceding talk - Professor Helen Marshall, University of Adelaide

Including live discussion, audience Q&A

Audience voting at the beginning and the end on ‘Should we introduce Bexsero into teenage immunisation programmes now?’

10:00-10:10
Potential use of MenABCWY vaccines - Associate Professor Matthew Snape, University of Oxford

10:10-10:20
BREAK

Prevention and epidemic control (2) - Chair and moderator: Professor Kate O’Brien, WHO

10.20-10.45
Conclusions of P-SERENADE project- implications for pneumococcal vaccine policy and what is happening next – Dr Maria Knoll, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

10.45-11.45
PANEL DISCUSSION: Optimal schedules for control of pneumococcal infection in countries with high and low carriage

Moderated panel discussion on policy issue: switch from 3+0 to 2+1, will it make a difference to control? Is it a necessary step to establish herd protection?

• What is the best PCV schedule for LMIC? results from trials in Asian countries - Professor Lay-Myint Yoshida, Nagasaki University, Japan AND Prof Shrijana Shrestha, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal

• What we have learned from the UK on 1+1 vs 2+1 - Professor David Goldblatt, UCL

• Role of catch up campaigns - Professor Anthony Scott, KEMRI Wellcome Trust

• Caveats for PCV schedules that rely on herd effects in countries with intensive transmission - Professor Stefan Flasche, LSHTM

• Prevention of ST-1 pneumococcal outbreaks in the meningitis belt - Dr Brenda Kwambana Adams, UCL

Including live discussion, Q&A, audience voting

11:45-12:00
BREAK

Prevention and epidemic control (3) - Chair and moderator: Professor James Stuart, WHO and University of Bristol

12:00-12:45
PANEL DISCUSSION How should MenACWYX vaccine be used in the meningitis belt? Is more research needed to inform strategy?

• The importance of MenACWYX vaccine for meningitis belt countries - Professor Samba Sow, Center for Vaccine Development, Mali

• GAVI view on the use of MenACWYX in the meningitis belt - Dr Lee Hampton, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Geneva
• Which age groups should be targeted for mass vaccination campaigns? Results from modelling studies - Dr Caroline Trotter, University of Cambridge
• Deciding vaccine strategy based on current evidence - Dr Mark Alderson, PATH

• The need for a cluster randomised trial on impact on carriage to inform vaccination strategy - Dr Matt Coldiron, Epicentre / Médecins Sans Frontières

Including live discussion, audience Q&A, and voting on 3 questions:

1. Once licensed and WHO prequalified, MenACWYX conjugate vaccine should replace MenA conjugate vaccine in EPI programmes across the meningitis belt combined with

• A. no mass campaigns
• B. mass campaigns of children/young adults across the belt
• C. mass campaigns of children/young adults but only in highest risk countries

 

2. If mass campaigns are conducted, they should cover

• A. 5-14 year olds
• B. 1-19 year olds
• C. 1-29 year olds

 

3. A cluster-randomised trial is needed now to measure the impact of MenACWYX vaccine on carriage to support decisions on vaccination strategy

• A. Yes
• B. No

 

12:45-12:50
Close - Vinny Smith, MRF and CoMO

The steering committee for Meningitis Research Foundation Conference 2021:

• Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust/LSHTM
• Dr Mark Alderson, PATH
• Professor Ray Borrow, Public Health England, Vaccine Evaluation Unit, Manchester
• Professor Dominique Caugant, NIPH
• Professor Sir Brian Greenwood, LSHTM
• Professor Paul Heath, SGUL
• Professor Robert Heyderman, UCL
• Prof Beate Kampmann, LSHTM
• Dr Brenda Kwambana Adams, UCL
• Dr Senjuti Saha, Child Health Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Dr Matthew Snape, Oxford Vaccine Group
• Professor James Stuart, University of Bristol/ WHO
• Dr Caroline Trotter, University of Cambridge
• Dr Anne von Gottberg, National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Johannesburg
• Linda Glennie, Meningitis Research Foundation

Group B Streptococcus: Accelerating Evidence-based Action for Every Family Everywhere
LAUNCH: WHO’s Value Case Proposition
Wednesday 3rd November from 1.30 pm (FREE ONLINE)
Hosted by The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine with WHO and Meningitis Research Foundation, plus many partners

Worldwide over 20 million pregnant women are estimated to be affected by Group B Streptococcal infection. To date most focus has been on infections in children, yet there are many additional consequences for women themselves, including stillbirths, preterm birth and long-term impacts for affected survivors.

The WHO-led Value Case Proposition includes years of work by many teams from all over the world on new data, analysis regarding long-term health and economic consequences of GBS disease, and estimated costs/benefits of vaccination or other prevention approaches.

The report findings will be relevant for families, policymakers, clinicians, scientists, & industry. There will be a particular spotlight on meningitis and this Report is linked to the WHO Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030. 
 

International Symposium on Streptococcus agalactiae Disease (ISSAD2021)
Thursday 4th to Friday 5th November

The second International Symposium on Streptococcus agalactiae Disease (ISSAD2021) will convene stakeholders sharing the latest science to accelerate progress against GBS, including meningitis. As well as dynamic and diverse plenaries, there will be interactive parallel sessions, a poster competition with scholarships, and mentoring for next generation low- and middle-income country scientists.

Conference content will span discovery (genomics and host response), through development (including the latest updates on vaccines), to delivery of care in MNCH systems. Join us to advance evidence for action against GBS, to protect every family everywhere.