Impact of mass vaccination with polysaccharide conjugate vaccine against serogroup C meningococcal disease in Spain

The changing pattern of bacterial meningitis in adult patients at a large tertiary university hospital in Barcelona, Spain (1982–2010)

“…29e31 Due to a shift to serogroup C, a mass vaccination campaign against this serogroup was undertaken in 2000. 32,33 Furthermore, serogroup C conjugate vaccine was included in the routine vaccination schedule for children. 33 These facts have most probably changed the epidemiology of meningococcal disease in our environment.…”

“…32,33 Furthermore, serogroup C conjugate vaccine was included in the routine vaccination schedule for children. 33 These facts have most probably changed the epidemiology of meningococcal disease in our environment. They have been captured in our study by a dramatic decline in the number of meningococcal meningitis while the numbers of pneumococcal were similar in both time periods.…”

Distribution of Serogroups and Genotypes among Disease-Associated and Carried Isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from the Czech Republic, Greece, and Norway

“…After its first report in Canada (3), this variant has spread globally, causing increases in the incidence of serogroup C disease in many countries, including the Czech Republic in 1993 (36), Greece in 1993 (33), and Norway in 1994 (63). This epidemic triggered a number of major public health interventions worldwide, including mass immunization (6,15,52) and the accelerated introduction of the serogroup C conjugate vaccine (44). As seen in all three carrier collections, ST-11 complex meningococci normally occur at a low prevalence among carriage isolates (12,20,23,47); however, during 1993, a year before the collection of most of the Czech isolates used in the present analysis, there were unusually high levels of ST-11 serogroup C carriage in the Czech Republic, possibly due to the recent spread of the variant (30).…”

Aetiology of bacterial meningitis and resistance to antibiotics of causative pathogens in Europe and in the Mediterranean region

“…A dramatic decrease in serogroup C was observed in 2000-2005 in Spain [18] and in the Greek population prior to the introduction of the vaccine in 2000 [19]. In contrast, an increase in serogroup C isolates was observed in France and Italy in the same period.…”