A meningococcal W vaccination campaign is scheduled to take place from October 2018 to March 2019, targeting approximately 40,000 young people aged 17 to 24 who live, study, or work in the Dijon and Genlis regions (approximately 153 municipalities).

The goal is to protect young adults in this geographic area from the risk of infection by curbing the spread of the bacteria within the population.

Five cases of invasive meningococcal W infections in 6 months

Between December 2017 and June 2018, five cases of invasive meningococcal W (IMW) infections linked to the same bacterium occurred in Côte-d'Or. Of these five cases, four involved young adults residing in the Dijon and Genlis catchment areas, one of whom died.

A large-scale meningococcal W vaccination campaign in 2016

As a reminder, at the end of 2016, the occurrence of three cases (including two deaths) among students at the university campus in Dijon led to the implementation of a large-scale vaccination campaign against meningococcal W. More than 10,000 students at the Dijon campus, or approximately 41%, were vaccinated between January and March 2017. No new cases linked to this type of meningococcal bacteria occurred in Côte-d'Or between late December 2016 and December 2017.

A bacterium that continues to circulate

The current situation, with five cases occurring over a six-month period between December 2017 and June 2018, shows that this bacterium continues to circulate in the population, particularly among young adults in the geographic area comprising the two communities of Dijon and Genlis. In this area, the incidence rate of W IIM is more than 10 times higher than that observed in the rest of France.

Serogroup W is one of the least common in France. Nevertheless, an increase in the number of cases has been observed since 2015 (from 19 cases in 2014 to 74 cases in 2017) (see Status Report on W-type IIM as of December 31, 2017). This increase is primarily linked to a virulent strain ("UK-2013 strain"), for which a significant proportion of deaths (32%) was observed among cases reported in France in 2017. Cases of WII associated with this strain have been reported in several regions, but to date no other clusters of increased WII incidence have been observed outside the Dijon and Genlis areas.

A vaccination campaign for 17–24-year-olds

This situation justifies the implementation of a vaccination campaign in the Dijon and Genlis catchment areas. Individuals aged 17 to 24 will be able to receive a vaccine that protects against meningococcal infections caused by serogroups A, C, W, Y. This vaccine therefore offers broader protection than the meningococcal C vaccine currently recommended in the French vaccination schedule for infants (at 5 and 12 months) and as a catch-up vaccination for individuals up to age 24 (see information on vaccines available on the vaccination-info-service website).

The severity of infections caused by this strain can be weighed against the vaccine’s efficacy, as it has few and mild side effects.

More information

On invasive meningococcal infections: /Thematic-files/Infectious-diseases/Vaccine-preventable-diseases/Invasive-meningococcal-infections/Fact-sheet

About the vaccination campaign: https://www.bourgogne-franche-comte.ars.sante.fr/vaccination-contre-le-meningocoque-w