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The World Health Organization has given the go-ahead for a meningitis A vaccine to be used in infants younger than a year old in Africa. The vaccine, MenAfriVac, has been highly effective since its introduction four years ago to protect children and adults from ages one to 29. The inexpensive, safe vaccine has been administered to more than 215 million people in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa's so-called meningitis belt, where the disease occurs regularly in an area between Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east.