Impact and effectiveness of meningococcal vaccines: a review

To summarize and critically evaluate the evidence on the impact and effectiveness of meningococcal vaccination programs around the world in order to inform decisionmaking in Latin America and the Caribbean.

A review of the literature was conducted following several components of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. PubMed Central® was searched for papers published in any language from January 1999 - March 2017.

In all, 32 studies were included, most of which evaluated the meningococcal C conjugate vaccine. Fourteen studies measured effectiveness and 30 measured impact. The effectiveness of polysaccharide vaccines was 65% - 83.7% (different age groups), while the effectiveness of the conjugate vaccines was 66% - 100%. Incidence decline of laboratory-confirmed meningococcal disease for the conjugate vaccine ranged from 77% - 100% among different ages groups. The only study that evaluated the protein subunit vaccine reported a vaccine effectiveness of 82.9%.

The studies reviewed show impact and effectiveness of both polysaccharide vaccines and conjugate vaccines on vaccine-serogroup meningococcal disease. The conjugate vaccines, however, show higher impact and effectiveness with longer-lasting protection over the polysaccharide vaccines. Given the variance in potential use of a meningococcal vaccine, epidemiological surveillance systems should be strengthened to inform national decisions.