Impact on disease incidence of a routine universal and catch-up vaccination strategy against Neisseria meningitidis C in Tuscany, Italy

Vaccine

Volumn 30, Issue 45, 2012, Pages 6396-6401

  Bechini, Angela ^a   Levi, Miriam ^a   Boccalini, Sara ^a   Tiscione, Emilia ^a   Balocchini, Emanuela ^b   Canessa, Clementina ^c   Azzari, Chiara ^c   Bonanni, Paolo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE   (Italy)

^b Tuscany Regional Health Authority   (Italy)

^c UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE   (Italy)

Author keywords

Efficacy; Invasive meningococcal disease; Meningococcal meningitis; Prevention; Tuscany (Italy); Vaccination strategies

Indexed keywords

MENINGOCOCCUS VACCINE;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AGE DISTRIBUTION; AGED; ARTICLE; BACTERIAL MENINGITIS; CHILD; EPIDEMIC MENINGITIS; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HERD IMMUNITY; HUMAN; IMMUNIZATION; INCIDENCE; INFECTION PREVENTION; ITALY; NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS; NONHUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; SEPTICEMIA; VACCINATION;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AGE DISTRIBUTION; AGED; CHILD; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; HUMANS; IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMS; INCIDENCE; INFANT; ITALY; MENINGOCOCCAL INFECTIONS; MENINGOCOCCAL VACCINES; MIDDLE AGED; NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS; POPULATION SURVEILLANCE; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84866506393     PISSN: 0264410X     EISSN: 18732518     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.08.019     Document Type: Article

References (24)

1. Ramsay M., Fox A. EU-IBIS network. Invasive Neisseria meningitidis in Europe 2006 2007, Health Protection Agency, London, United Kingdom.
2. WHO. Meningitis Factsheet. Available from: [accessed 25.01.12]. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs141/en/index.html.
3. Stroffolini T., Carbonari P. Meningococcal disease in Italy in 1989. Eur J Epidemiol 1992, 8:114-116.
4. Sistema Informatizzato Malattie Infettive (SIMI) [Information system for infectious diseases]. Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Dati di sorveglianza sulle meningiti [Surveillance data on meningitis]. Available from: [accessed 25.01.12]. http://www.simi.iss.it/dati.htm.
5. Ciofi degli Atti ML. Lotta alla meningite. Quadro attuale e prospettive. Società italiana di Pediatria. Available from: [accessed 25.01.12]. http://sip.it/per-il-medico/lotta-alla-meningite-quadro-attuale-e-prospettive.
6. Regione Toscana DGR n. 379 del 7/03/2005. Direttive in materia di vaccinazioni e indirizzi per la stesura del nuovo calendario regionale delle vaccinazioni. Modifiche alla delibera G.R. 24.11.2003 n. 1249. BURT n. 13 del; 30.03.2005.
7. Regione Toscana DGR n. 1020 del 27/12/2007. Aggiornamento direttive regionali in materia di vaccinazioni. Revoca delibere n. 1249 del 24/11/2003, n.379 del 7/3/2005 e n.1060 del 10/10/2000. Modifica delibera n. 1386 del 17/12/2001. BURT n. 2 del; 9.01.2008.
8. Geodemo. ISTAT [Italian National Institute of Statistics]. Available from: [accessed 25.01.12]. http://demo.istat.it/.
9. Azzari C., Moriondo M., Indolfi G., Massai C., Becciolini L., de Martino M., et al. Molecular detection and serotyping on clinical samples improve diagnostic sensitivity and reveal increased incidence of invasive disease by Streptococcus pneumoniae in Italian children. J Med Microbiol 2008, 57(Pt 10):1205-1212.
10. Azzari C., Moriondo M., Indolfi G., Cortimiglia M., Canessa C., Becciolini L., et al. Realtime PCR is more sensitive than multiplex PCR for diagnosis and serotyping in children with culture negative pneumococcal invasive disease. PLoS One 2010, 5(2):e9282.
11. Farrington C.P. Estimation of vaccine effectiveness using the screening method. Int J Epidemiol 1993, 22:742-746.
12. Ramsay M.E., McVermon J., Andrews N.J., Heath P.T., Slack M.P. Estimating Haemophylus influenzae Type b Vaccine effectiveness in England and Wales by use of the screening methods. J Infect Dis 2003, 188:481-485.
13. Bonanni P., Bechini A., Boccalini A., Pecori L., Graziani G., Balocchini E. Meningococcal C vaccination campaign following an increasing number of reported meningitis cases in Tuscany 2006, vol. 1. V&I News-ECDC Newsletter on Vaccines and Immunization, p. 3.
14. European Influenza Surveillance Scheme EISS Weekly Electronic Bulletin 2005. Low influenza activity in Europe; 10 October 2005. p. 157. Available from: [accessed 25.01.12]. http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/activities/surveillance/EISN/Newsletter/SUN_EISN_INFL_Bulletin_2005week41.pdf.
15. Conterno L.O., Silva Filho C.R., Rüggeberg J.U., Heath P.T. Conjugate vaccines for preventing meningococcal C meningitis and septicaemia. Evid-Based Child Health 2007, 2:497-528. [Review].
16. Trotter C.L., Maiden M.C. Meningococcal vaccines and herd immunity: lessons learned from serogroup C conjugate vaccination programmes. Expert Rev Vaccines 2009, 8(7):851-861.
17. Trotter C.L., Ramsay M.E. Vaccination against meningococcal disease in Europe: review and recommendations for the use of conjugate vaccines. FEMS Microbiol Rev 2007, 31(1):101-107.
18. Ramsay M.E., Andrews N.J., Trotter C.L., Kaczmarski E.B., Miller E. Herd immunity from meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccination in England. BMJ 2003, 326:365-366.
19. Miller E., Salisbury D., Ramsay M. Planning, registration, and implementation of an immunisation campaign against meningococcal serogroup C disease in the UK: a success story. Vaccine 2001, 20:58-67.
20. Trotter C.L., Andrews N., Kaczmarski E.B., Miller E., Ramsay M.E. Effectiveness of meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine 4years after introduction. Lancet 2004, 364:365-367.
21. Martínez A.I., Dominguez A., Oviedo M., Minguell S., Jansa J.M., Codina G., et al. Changes in the evolution of meningococcal disease, 2001-2008, Catalonia (Spain). Vaccine 2009, 27:3496-3498.
22. de Greeff S.C., de Melker H.E., Spanjaard L., Schouls L.M., van der Ende A. Protection from routine vaccination at the age of 14months with meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine in the Netherlands. Pediatr Infect Dis J 2006, 25:79-80.
23. Pollard A.J., Perrett K.P., Beverley P.C. Maintaining protection against invasive bacteria with protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccines. Nat Rev Immunol 2009, 9(3):213-220.
24. Chiappini E., Venturini E., Bonsignori F., Galli L., de Martino M. Serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis invasive infection: analysis of the possible vaccination strategies for a mass campaign. Acta Pædiatr 2010, 99:1609-1614.