MRF Conference 2023

Day 1 – Tuesday 7 November

8:00 – 9.00 Registration and coffee

9.00 Welcome, Vinny Smith, Chief Executive Meningitis Research Foundation and Confederation of Meningitis Organisations

Lifetime impact of meningitis: access to support and after care – Chair: Dr Suzanne Anderson, UCL MRC Clinical Trials Unit

9.15-9.40 Patient experience of meningitis and septicaemia in high and low to middle income regions, Dr Ella Bailey, UK member of MRF and Mr Opuda Mitchell Bennett, Nigeria

9.40-10.05 Improving diagnosis, treatment and care for people affected by meningitis in LMICs, Dr Nicoline Schiess, World Health Organization (WHO)

10.05-10.30 Understanding the long-term impacts of bacterial meningitis on babies, children and adults, Dr Merijn Bijlsma, Amsterdam UMC

10.30-10.55 COFFEE, EXHIBITIONS AND POSTERS

Current picture of meningitis– Chair: Professor Caroline Trotter, University of Cambridge

10.55-11.15 UK epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease and pneumococcal meningitis, Dr Mary Ramsay UK-Health Security Agency (UK-HSA)

11.15-11.35 H.influenzae meningitis in the Hib conjugate vaccine era: a global success story and emerging challenges, Professor Mary Slack, Griffith University, Queensland

11.35-11.55 Estimating the global burden of meningitis in all ages, Rose Bender, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

11.55-12.15 Uncovering the hidden burden of meningitis mortality in the under 5's in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, Dr Quique Bassat, Barcelona Institute for Global Health and Manhiça Health Research Centre, Mozambique

12.15-12.35 Q&A and discussion after all speakers have presented

12.35-13.30 LUNCH, EXHIBITIONS AND POSTERS

13.30-14.30 Panel discussion on AMR and bacterial meningitis: global perspectives of current issues – Chair and moderator: Professor Mike Sharland, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

To what extent is AMR threatening the control and management of bacterial meningitis? What is the current and future role of whole genome sequencing in identifying and monitoring AMR and emerging threats?

• 13.30-13.40 Overview of priority pathogens and the role of vaccines in preventing AMR, Dr Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz, WHO
• 13.40-13.50 Meningococcal resistant strains, Professor Muhamed-Kheir Taha, Institut Pasteur Paris
• 13.50-14.00 Pneumococcal resistant strains, Professor Angela Brueggemann, University of Oxford
• 14.00- 14.10 Klebsiella and e-coli resistant strains, Professor Nicholas Thomson, Wellcome Sanger Institute
• 14.10-14.30 Q&A and discussion after all speakers have presented

Recognition, diagnosis and treatment – Chair: Dr Fiona McGill, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

• 14.30- 14.55 Addressing Cryptococcal meningitis as a key strategy to ending deaths from AIDS, Dr Angela Loyse, St George’s University of London (SGUL)
• 14.55-15.20 UK guidelines for meningitis and sepsis: what updates have been made, and what is the likely impact? Professor Robert Heyderman, University College London (UCL) and Professor Paul Heath, SGUL 

Diagnostic methods for meningitis – Chair: Professor Dominique Caugant, Norwegian Institute of Public Health

• 15.50-16.05 The spectrum of existing methodologies for meningitis diagnosis, Dr Kanny Diallo, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS), Côte d'Ivoire
• 16.05-16.30 Development of rapid diagnostic tests, Katya Fernandez, WHO
• 16.30-16.55 Blood testing to enhance the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis in Sub-Saharan Africa: BLoTIMA study findings and potential future applications of Dried Blood Spots, Dr Brenda Kwambana-Adams, Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust

Day 2 – Wednesday 8 November

8-8.20 Registration 

WHO Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 – Chair: Professor Sir Brian Greenwood, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

9.10-9.30 Towards a world free of meningitis: the WHO Global Roadmap to defeat meningitis by 2030, Antoine Durupt, WHO

9.30-10.00 Panel discussion - why the road map matters for research, Antoine Durupt, WHO; Professor Caroline Trotter, University of Cambridge; Dr Matthew Coldiron, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Prevention and epidemic control (1) – Chair: Professor James Stuart, University of Bristol

10.00-10.25 Invasive meningococcal disease in countries of the African meningitis belt: recent outbreaks, overview of MenAfriVac introduction and WHO SAGE recommendations for the introduction of MenACWYX, Dr Andre Bita, WHO

10.25-10.50 Global overview of infant and adolescent MenB programmes; current schedules and potential future use of MenABCWY vaccines, Professor Marco Safadi, Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medicine, Brazil

10.50-11.20 COFFEE, EXHIBITIONS AND POSTERS

Prevention and epidemic control (2) - Chair: Professor Saul Faust, University of Southampton 

11.20-11.45 Post-pandemic gonorrhoea: does this change the perspective for meningitis prevention? Professor Calman MacLennan, University of Oxford

11.45-12.10 New approaches to developing MenB vaccines, Professor Christoph Tang, University of Oxford
 

Prevention and epidemic control (3) – Chair: Professor Paul Heath, SGUL

12.10-12.35 The future of GBS prevention: current status of vaccines and serocorrelates of protection, Dr Konstantinos Karampatsas, St George’s University of London

12.35-13.00 Preventing viral meningitis: what vaccines are in development? Dr Seilesh Kadambari, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London

13.00-14.00 LUNCH, EXHIBITIONS AND POSTERS

Poster presentations from the top 5 poster abstracts and award for the best poster - Chair: Professor Robert Heyderman, UCL

14.00-14.06 Novel cross-protective meningococcal and pneumococcal vaccine antigens identified via Reverse Vaccinology 2.0, Dr Fadil Bidmos, Imperial College London

14.07-14.13 Can some childhood mental health disorders be prevented? Long-term risk of psychiatric disorders following neonatal, invasive Group-B Streptococcus disease. A population-based cohort study from Denmark, Dr Malene Lykke, Aarhus University, Denmark

14.14-14.20 Non-invasive screening for meningitis via high-frequency transfontenellar ultrasound: Results from the UNITED-Meningitis study in Mozambique, Dr Muhammad Sidat, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique

14.21-14.27 Changes in invasive meningococcal disease in England before and after the first Covid-19 lockdown, Dr Aiswarya Lekshmi, UK-HSA

14.28-14.34 Invasive Meningococcal Disease in southern Vietnam in ten-year period from 2012 to 2021, Dr Thanh Van Phan, Pasteur Insitute of Ho Chi Minh City

14.35 Award for best poster

14.40-15.10 TEA, EXHIBITIONS AND POSTERS

Prevention and epidemic control (4) – Chair: Dr Brenda Kwambana-Adams, Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust 

15.10-15.35 Pneumococcal vaccination in the UK: Current and future perspectives, Professor David Goldblatt, UCL 

15.35- 16.50 Panel discussion on: What are the opportunities for increasing access to pneumococcal vaccines?

• 15.35-15.45 Overcoming barriers to PCV introduction in Middle income and GAVI transitioning countries, Professor Fiona Russell, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and The University of Melbourne   
• 15.45-15.55 PCV roll out in the African region: barriers and opportunities, Professor Martin Antonio, MRC Unit The Gambia
• 15.55-16.05 Use of reduced dose PCV schedules to prevent pneumococcal infection, Professor Stefan Flasche, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 
• 16.05-16.25 Is fractional dosing an effective and affordable approach to protecting wider populations against IPD?
  • Results of cluster RCT of mass campaigns of fractional dose PCV in children aged 1-9 in Niger, Dr Matthew Coldiron, MSF
  • Results of an individually randomised trial of fractional dose PCV in infants in Kenya, Dr Katherine Gallagher, LSHTM and The KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme
• 16.25-16.50 Discussion and Q&A after all panellists have presented

16.50-17.00 Close