MERIT Objectives

The Meningitis Environmental Risk Information Technologies (MERIT) project is a joint effort of the World Health Organization (WHO) and collaborators to utilize more effectively existing knowledge of the epidemiology of meningoccal meningitis to

1. Improve current control strategies;
2. Improve the understanding of the relationship between bacterial meningitis and environmental parameters;
3. Use this understanding to provide more timely warnings of the onset of meningitis epidemics; and
4. Use this knowledge to improve the efficacy of meningitis prevention and control strategies.

LATEST MEETING INFO

The MERIT Steering Committee will meet in Geneva on June 26, 2008.

The second MERIT Science Meeting is being planned for late November or Early December in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting will focus on the development of decision support tools to prediction meningitis epidemics.

There will be a one-day capacity building workshop immediately following the MERIT meeting. The objectives of the Workshop include:

1. The MERIT team sharing with the Ethiopian meningitis and climate community the outcomes of the two-day MERIT meeting and sharing the broad knowledge of international experts attending the MERIT meeting

2. Enabling the MERIT team to learn from the Ethiopian community with regard to national needs, current activities and plans for the future in terms of meningitis prevention and control and engagement with the climate community

3. Building a common agenda and seeking ways to develop MERIT activities specifically in Ethiopia