Related Experiment Videos
Safety and efficacy of meningococcal group C conjugate vaccines
1Department of Child Health and Vaccine Institute, St George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0QT, UK. jrueggeb@sghms.ac.uk
Insights
The UK's universal meningococcal group C vaccine program shows high efficacy (around 90%) and a favorable safety profile. This vaccination initiative has significantly reduced disease cases and fatalities in young people.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Public Health
- Vaccinology
Background:
- The United Kingdom pioneered a universal vaccination program using conjugate polysaccharide vaccines against Neisseria meningitidis group C.
- This review examines efficacy and safety data three years post-program implementation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the efficacy and safety of Neisseria meningitidis group C conjugate vaccines in a universal vaccination program.
- To evaluate local reactogenicity and systemic adverse reactions post-licensure.
Main Methods:
- Review of pre- and post-licensure data.
- Analysis of local reactogenicity compared to routine vaccinations.
- Passive surveillance of suspected adverse reactions.
- Active surveillance of case numbers, vaccine failures, and coverage rates.
Main Results:
- Local reactogenicity is favorable compared to other routine vaccinations; no specific increase in adverse reactions noted in infant programs.
- Commonly observed pre-licensure systemic reactions were self-limiting (fever, myalgia, headaches, irritability).
- Passive safety monitoring identified numerous non-serious, reversible adverse reaction reports.
- Efficacy estimates are approximately 90% across all age groups.
- Significant reduction in meningococcal group C cases and fatalities in individuals under 20 years old (from 67 to 5 annual deaths within 2 years).
Conclusions:
- The balance of benefits and risks for Neisseria meningitidis group C conjugate vaccines is overwhelmingly favorable.
- The vaccination program has demonstrated substantial public health impact through disease reduction.
- Further safety data are anticipated from ongoing large-scale studies.
Abstract:
The UK was the first country to implement a universal vaccination programme with conjugate polysaccharide vaccines against Neisseria meningitidis group C. This article reviews the pre- and postlicensure data on their efficacy and safety 3 years after the introduction of the programme. Local reactogenicity data compare favourably with other routine vaccinations and no specific increase in adverse reactions has been associated with their use in infant vaccination programmes. Self-limiting systemic reactions such as fever, myalgia, headaches and irritability have commonly been observed in prelicensure studies. Passive postlicensure safety monitoring of suspected adverse reactions has identified a large number of reports, generally of reactions deemed non-serious and reversible. An Expert Working Group has concluded the balance of benefits and risks to be overwhelmingly favourable. Further safety data are expected from large data-linkage studies. Present efficacy estimates, based on active surveillance of case numbers, vaccine failures and coverage rates, are approximately 90% for all age groups. A significant fall in the number of cases attributable to meningococcal group C infection has been observed in the age group of < 20 years. The annual number of fatalities from confirmed meningococcal C disease in the same population has fallen from 67 to 5 cases within a 2-year period.