Meningococcal Serogroup B Vaccine Immunogenicity in High-Risk Groups: What Are the Implications?

Abstract

* Abbreviation: 4CMenB — : component Meningococcal B Vaccine (Bexsero) quadrivalent Neisseria meningitidis is an organism that is well-known to pediatricians as an important cause of sepsis, which can be fulminant, and of bacterial meningitis as well as invasive infections at other sites. These infections can lead to hearing loss, loss of limbs, and even death in a matter of hours.1 On the basis of the content of the polysaccharide capsule, N meningitidis can be divided into 12 serogroups, but serogroups A, B, C, D, Y, and W-135 are responsible for virtually all invasive infections. In the United States, the overall incidence of meningococcal disease has been on the decline over the past several decades, which, in part, may be related to the introduction of routine administration of the quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine directed against serogroups A, C, Y, and W-135 to adolescents.2 Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System recently reported that the overall average incidence of meningococcal disease was 0.26 cases per 100 000 population over the years 2006–2015.2 This translates into an average annual number of cases of 792 associated with 98 deaths (14.9%). On … Address correspondence to Sheldon L. Kaplan, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Texas Children’s Hospital, Feigin Tower, Suite 1150, 1102 Bates Ave, Houston, TX 77030. E-mail: skaplan{at}bcm.edu