Headlines - Children, adolescents, and young adults aged 1 to 24: Get vaccinated against meningitis C!

We recently highlighted the importance of vaccination against meningitis C as part of Vaccination Week (Press Release of April 19).

In recent months, two severe cases of meningitis C have occurred in Burgundy among young people, who are targeted by the vaccination recommended in the immunization schedule. Since 2010, the immunization schedule has recommended routine vaccination for infants aged 12 to 24 months, supplemented by catch-up vaccination for the 1–24 age group.

The choice of these age groups is easily explained when looking at Figure 1: The incidence, calculated over the 2003–2007 period, is highest before age 1 (2.07/100,000), high between ages 1 and 4 (1.12/100,000), and shows a second peak between ages 15 and 20.

Data from late 2011 (general sample of beneficiaries—CnamTS/InVS) show a vaccination coverage (VC) of 45.7% at age 2. However, VC levels were 13.2% among 6- to 14-year-olds and 4.1% among 15- to 24-year-olds. These figures illustrate the very inadequate level of VC for this serious infection, which can, in the worst cases, lead to death.

Reimbursed by Social Security, the monovalent meningococcal C conjugate vaccine is very well tolerated and has a simple administration schedule (a single injection). Vaccination against meningitis C should therefore be routinely offered to children, adolescents, and young adults between the ages of 1 and 24.