Vaccination coverage against meningococcal type C is insufficient. To improve it, the HCSP recommends setting up a catch-up campaign.
400 to 600. This is the number of invasive meningococcal type C infections that occur each year in France. Faced with this bacterium, the vaccination campaign is struggling. Less than 70% of infants are vaccinated by the age of 24 months. Insufficient, in the eyes of the High Council for Public Health (HCSP). He publishes this January 27 a series of recommendations to improve coverage of this audience.
263 cases in young people
Vaccination has been systematically recommended for infants (12-24 months), since 2010. In the initial phase, the HCSP recommended a temporary extension of this preventive act up to 24 years of age. A measure supposed to confer collective immunity, but which was not seized by the population. Between 2011 and 2015, 263 cases of invasive meningococcal disease C strain occurred in people aged 1 to 24 years.
“The failure of this strategy is linked to the lack of sufficient vaccination coverage, particularly among adolescents and young adults and therefore the lack of installation of group immunity”, analyzes the HCSP. The rise in infections is particularly marked among the most vulnerable, infants under the age of one. They are, in fact, insufficiently vaccinated, even if coverage is progressing steadily.
The insufficient protection is all the more worrying since a new cycle of circulation of the bacterium has been under way since 2010. This explains the increase in the number of cases in France. The United Kingdom and the Netherlands, where coverage is more satisfactory, did not experience this phenomenon. The challenge therefore lies in the establishment of group immunity.
Three corrective measures
The HCSP recommends three simultaneous approaches in order to improve the use of vaccination against meningococcal type C in the population. First, physicians are encouraged to take every opportunity to raise the subject with parents. Request for a medical certificate, vaccination appointment of another type… there are many leads.
At the same time, a catch-up campaign must be organized in an official way. This should primarily target adolescents and young adults (11-24 years), who are the most exposed to meningococcal disease.
Finally, the HCSP pleads in favor of a special measure for populations considered to be “at high and lasting risk” of contracting an invasive meningococcal infection. A tetravalent vaccine – which protects against meningococcal types A, C, W135, Y – would benefit from being inoculated every five years.
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