Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF)

Meningitis Research Foundation is a national registered charity established in 1989. Our vision is a world free from meningitis and septicaemia. From small beginnings, the Foundation has grown into an international charity at the forefront of the fight against death and disability caused by meningitis and septicaemia. MRF has funded scientific research in Malawi over the past decade, including antibiotic trials, steroid trials and studies to investigate the very severe outcome of meningitis in Malawi. Our current activities involve supporting primary health clinics to improve the diagnosis and treatment of severely ill children. We have done this through adapting the WHO's Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment (ETAT) for health care workers in clinics, using mobile phone technology, and undertaking community awareness to improve the outcome of bacterial meningitis in children in Malawi. Our objective is for primary ETAT to be a sustainably adopted and scaled up across Malawi by the Ministry of Health.

A commitment from the Ministry of Health to include primary ETAT in the next Health Sector Strategic Plan.