The new vaccine protects against meningitis A, the deadliest form of the disease. It was developed by the Meningitis Vaccine Project, a partnership between the World Health Organization, the Seattle-based non-profit PATH, and the vaccine producer Serum Institute of India Limited.

“If they can get rid of group A meningococcal disease, which has the highest mortality rate and is a fairly unpleasant piece of work, it will be fantastic,” said Dr. Norman Noah, a public health expert at London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was unconnected to the project. Noah said the vaccine’s preliminary results were encouraging.

The new vaccine was recently tested in 600 toddlers in Mali and Gambia. It produced antibody levels nearly 20 times higher than those produced by a vaccine now in use. The only side effects detected were mostly minor, such as some skin and muscle tenderness where the needle to deliver the shot was injected.

A further study is planned in India this summer, to be followed by a large-scale vaccination of the 9 million people most at risk in Burkina Faso — those aged one to 30 years old — in 2008. If these trials are successful, authorities then plan to introduce the vaccine across the rest of West Africa.

Meningitis is a bacterial infection of the lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Its symptoms include a stiff neck, high fever, headaches and vomiting.

Meningitis primarily affects children, killing 10 percent of all those infected. Even in survivors, it can result in lasting neurological damage and hearing loss. While cases in the West are rare, each year, the disease sweeps across Africa’s “meningitis belt,” 21 countries stretching from Senegal to Ethiopia, causing tens of thousands of cases.

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