• COVID-19
  • Allergies and Infant Formula
  • Pharmacology
  • Telemedicine
  • Drug Pipeline News
  • Influenza
  • Allergy, Immunology, and ENT
  • Autism
  • Cardiology
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Endocrinology
  • Adolescent Medicine
  • Gastroenterology
  • Infectious disease
  • Nutrition
  • Neurology
  • Obstetrics-Gynecology & Women's Health
  • Developmental/Behavioral Disorders
  • Practice Improvement
  • Gynecology
  • Respiratory
  • Dermatology
  • Diabetes
  • Mental Health
  • Oncology
  • Psychiatry
  • Animal Allergies
  • Alcohol Abuse
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis
  • Sexual Health
  • Pain

Meningitis C Vaccine Booster Dose May Help Protect Teens

Article

Despite the fact that meningitis C vaccination is part of the United Kingdom's routine infant vaccination program, one in five adolescents has insufficient protection from the disease and may need a booster shot to maintain immunity, according to a report published June 5 in BMJ Online First.

FRIDAY, June 6 (HealthDay News) -- Despite the fact that meningitis C vaccination is part of the United Kingdom's routine infant vaccination program, one in five adolescents has insufficient protection from the disease and may need a booster shot to maintain immunity, according to a report published June 5 in BMJ Online First.

Matthew Snape, of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a study of 987 healthy adolescents aged 11 to 20 years, who were vaccinated against meningitis C between the ages of 6 and 15 years. Serum bactericidal antibody titers were measured five years after vaccination.

Only 84.1 percent of the subjects had serum bactericidal antibody titers of at least 1:8, and mean titers were significantly lower among 11- to 13-year-olds than among 14- to 20-year-olds, the researchers report. Immunization at or after the age of 10 was associated with higher mean titers than immunization at a younger age.

"On the basis of this study, we can be confident that this booster dose would maintain high concentrations of bactericidal antibodies through adolescence and into early adulthood, regardless of which serogroup C meningococcal vaccine is used," the authors write. "This should in turn provide protection not only to thevaccine recipients but also, through maintenance of herd immunity, to the younger children who have not received booster doses and among whom directvaccine effectiveness is negligible."

Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostic funded the study, and several co-authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.

AbstractFull TextEditorial

Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Related Videos
Donna Hallas, PhD, CPNP, PPCNP-BC, PMHS, FAANP, FAAN
Scott Ceresnak, MD
Scott Ceresnak, MD
Importance of maternal influenza vaccination recommendations
Reducing HIV reservoirs in neonates with very early antiretroviral therapy | Deborah Persaud, MD
Samantha Olson, MPH
Deborah Persaud, MD
Ari Brown, MD, FAAP | Pediatrician and CEO of 411 Pediatrics; author, baby411 book series; chief medical advisor, Kabrita USA.
© 2024 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.