The Ghanaian NGO shining a light on meningitis
When it comes to meningitis, ignorance can be incredibly costly. In a bid to save lives, the Concern Health Education Project (CHEP), is campaigning for prevention.
- 22 October 2024
- 4 min read
- by Francis Kokutse

If you met Adelaide Bortier, now 29, in the streets with her dark shades on, you could mistake her for a model, poised to take the catwalk. In fact, the shades camouflage her disability: she is blind, following a bout of meningitis. "It is a disease I would not wish on even the devil," says Bortier.
"A major public health challenge"
Meningitis is an inflammation of the fluid and membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. Every year, over 2 million people worldwide are affected by the condition, which can be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and even by non-pathogenic conditions, like cancer or lupus. And each year, an estimated 230,000 people die of it.
Bacterial meningitis is considered the most dangerous form, in some cases killing patients within 24 hours of first symptoms. In an address to mark this year's World Meningitis Day, Chief Director of the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, Alhaji Hafiz Adam, noted that the condition is most common in the northern part of the country, which has been designated as a 'meningitis zone'.
Adam said that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has estimated that of the almost 4,500 people recorded as suffering from meningitis each year, more than 400 people die, making meningitis "a major public health challenge in Ghana".
"They thought it was malaria"
Bortier's sad story with meningitis began 12 years ago. "It started with stomach pain. And then I got vomiting. After that, my head started aching. So, we had to go to the hospital, and they initially thought it was malaria. The diagnosis later changed to typhoid," she said.
She went to another hospital. Her neck stiffened up. "I was stuck in bed at some point. I started hallucinating for a long time, and I became paralysed," Bortier added. Even at this point, no one noticed that it was meningitis. By the time a specialist picked up on what was really wrong with her, "I had already lost my sight," she said.
Life after meningitis is hard – but there are some resources for affected survivors like Bortier. The non-governmental organisation Concern Health Education Project (CHEP), based in Accra, is one agency that has stepped up to provide assistance.
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Chief executive of CHEP Isaac Ampomah told VaccinesWork that getting involved with meningitis was part of a gradual evolution – their portfolio of work had been drifting in the direction of vaccine-preventable disease for a long time. They later connected with Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO), a worldwide network of people and groups working towards the defeat of meningitis, and built a targeted, specific campaign on meningitis.
"Because of our history and background in vaccine-preventable diseases, we also rallied behind CoMO, and became a member, and have, since then, centred our work on vaccination to control meningitis. [We do that] through outreaches, speaking to mothers, nursing mothers – to make sure they don't default in the routine vaccinations – which also include [vaccines that can prevent] meningitis," Ampomah said.
Shining a light on meningitis
Lack of knowledge, as Bortier's story shows, can be costly. CHEP workers engage in community education and school education for families to build popular awareness of what meningitis can look like, and what it can do.
An estimated one in five survivors of bacterial meningitis is left with lasting after-effects. These can range from neurological problems, like difficulty speaking, to hearing loss, to blindness, as in Bortier's case, to the loss of limbs following amputation.
CHEP works mainly in the northern part of the country and has developed working relationships with the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, which has branches all over the country.
Talking about the future of their work, Ampomah said, "In the past it was a campaign that did not see the light of day, but thank God, with the advocacy of CoMO and its members, now meningitis has gotten a special day – which is the 5th of October." This has also come to help their campaign at the national level.
Climate-linked risks
Ampomah said there is growing evidence to suggest that that climate change – including heat waves – could spur the incidence of meningitis.
Patience Bedu, a disease control officer at the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality in Accra, was full of praise for CHEP's contribution to their vaccination efforts. "In terms of meningitis, they have helped us with social mobilisation, engaging the people to visit our child welfare clinics, or for people to accept the vaccination as part of the health delivery system."
Bedu said CHEP's efforts have evidently boosted vaccination uptake. "This is all because the people have understood the reason why they should bring their children for vaccination."
Rising consciousness of the disease is critical – though Bortier warns: "You must rush to the hospital if you start to experience migraine and stiffness in the neck. This is because all these symptoms, like the headaches and the vomiting, also are symptoms of other common diseases, like malaria."
She said, "Meningitis can be very fatal, even under 24 hours," adding that, though she survived meningitis, she will never fully recover.
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