The Serum Institute is looking to bringing MenAfricVac to India, the conjugate vaccine for meningitis it has made for Africa. Researchers and scientists say that the vaccine will give protection for more duration to infants than the polysaccharide vaccines made use of currently apart from inducing herd immunity.

In a phase-III clinical trial, 800 children were included, and the trial was finished in Pune's KEM Hospital of late, which displayed the safety of the use of the vaccine. Meningitis is caused when there is an infection caused to the meninges, that is the narrow lining surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and which is often called the spinal meningitis.

The Serum Institute developed the meningococcal a conjugate vaccine while working on a Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) for doing away with meningitis from Africa.

It took them more than a decade to come up with the vaccine and at present it is being used in around 25 African nations, right from Ethiopia to Senegal.

In order to curb similar outbreaks in India, the serum institute is thinking of applying for a licence to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) so as to have the permission to bring the vaccine to India.