Meningococcal vaccine refers to any vaccine used to prevent infection by Neisseria meningitidis. Different versions are effective against some or all of the following types of meningococcus: A, B, C, W-135, and Y. The vaccines are between 85 and 100% effective for at least two years. They result in a decrease in meningitis and sepsis among populations where they are widely used. They are given either by injection into a muscle or just under the skin.
The World Health Organization recommends that countries with a moderate or high rate of disease or with frequent outbreaks should routinely vaccinate. In countries with a low risk of disease, they recommend that high risk groups should be immunized. In the African meningitis belt efforts to immunize all people between the ages of one and thirty with the meningococcal A conjugate vaccine are ongoing. In Canada and the United States the vaccines effective against four types of meningococcus (A, C, W, and Y) are recommended routinely for teenagers and others who are at high risk. Saudi Arabia requires vaccination with the quadrivalent vaccine for international travellers to Mecca for Hajj.
Meningococcal vaccines are generally safe. Some people develop pain and redness at the injection site. Use in pregnancy appears to be safe. Severe allergic reactions occur in less than one in a million doses.
The first meningococcal vaccine became available in the 1970s. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
Inspired by the response to the 1997 outbreak in Nigeria, the WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, and other groups created the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision for Epidemic Meningitis Control, which manages global response strategy. ICGs have since been created for other epidemic diseases.
Types
Neisseria meningitidis has 13 clinically significant serogroups, classified according to the antigenic structure of their polysaccharide capsule. Six serogroups, A, B, C, Y, W-135, and X, are responsible for virtually all cases of the disease in humans.
Quadrivalent (serogroups A, C, W-135, and Y) There are three vaccines available in the United States to prevent meningococcal disease, all quadrivalent in nature, targeting serogroups A, C, W-135, and Y: three conjugate vaccines (MCV-4), Menactra, Menveo and MenQuadfi. The pure polysaccharide vaccine Menomune, MPSV4, was discontinued in the United States in 2017.
Menveo and MenQuadfi are approved for medical use in the European Union.
Menactra and Menveo
The first meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV-4), Menactra, was licensed in the U.S. in 2005 by Sanofi Pasteur; Menveo was licensed in 2010 by Novartis. Both MCV-4 vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for people 2 through 55 years of age. Menactra received FDA approval for use in children as young as 9 months in April 2011 while Menveo received FDA approval for use in children as young as two months in August 2013. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not made recommendations for or against its use in children less than two years.
Menquadfi
Menquadfi, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2020, for use in individuals two years of age and older.
Menomune
Meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (MPSV-4), Menomune, has been available since the 1970s. It may be used if MCV-4 is not available, and is the only meningococcal vaccine licensed for people older than 55. Information about who should receive the meningococcal vaccine is available from the CDC.
Nimenrix
Nimenrix (developed by GlaxoSmithKline and later acquired by Pfizer), is a quadrivalent conjugate vaccine against serogroups A, C, W-135, and Y. In April 2012 Nimenrix was approved as the first quadrivalent vaccine against invasive meningococcal disease to be administered as a single dose in those over the age of one year, by the European Medicines Agency. In 2016, they approved the vaccine in infants six weeks of age and older, and it has been approved in other countries including Canada and Australia, among others. It is not licensed in the United States.
Mencevax
Mencevax (GlaxoSmithKline) and NmVac4-A/C/Y/W-135 (JN-International Medical Corporation) are used worldwide, but have not been licensed in the United States.