Open Collections

UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Meningitis vaccines in children : what have we achieved and where next? McAlpine, Alastair; Sadarangani, Manish

Abstract

Purpose of review: This review highlights the recent impacts of vaccines against the major bacterial causes of meningitis in children, and the challenges for further prevention of bacterial meningitis, with a focus on Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Group B Streptococcus. Recent findings: Conjugate vaccines against S. pneumoniae and N. meningitidis have resulted in dramatic reductions in bacterial meningitis globally where they have been used. Recent licensure and use of capsular group B meningococcal protein vaccines have further reduced meningococcal meningitis in infants, young children and adolescents for countries with endemic disease and during outbreaks. Summary: Existing vaccines to prevent bacterial meningitis in children should be utilized in countries with significant numbers of cases of pneumococcal and/or meningococcal meningitis. Vaccines which are able to protect against more than 13 serotypes of S. pneumoniae are in clinical trials and should be able to further reduce pneumococcal meningitis cases. Cost effective meningococcal vaccines against non-A capsular groups are needed for low resource countries. There remains an urgent need for a vaccine against Group B Streptococcus, which is a major cause of neonatal meningitis globally and for which no vaccine currently exists.

Item Metadata

Title
Meningitis vaccines in children : what have we achieved and where next?
Creator
McAlpine, Alastair; Sadarangani, Manish
Contributor
Children's Hospital (Vancouver, B.C.). Vaccine Evaluation Center; University of British Columbia. Division of Infectious Diseases
Date Issued
2019-10
Description
Purpose of review: This review highlights the recent impacts of vaccines against the major bacterial causes of meningitis in children, and the challenges for further prevention of bacterial meningitis, with a focus on Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Group B Streptococcus. Recent findings: Conjugate vaccines against S. pneumoniae and N. meningitidis have resulted in dramatic reductions in bacterial meningitis globally where they have been used. Recent licensure and use of capsular group B meningococcal protein vaccines have further reduced meningococcal meningitis in infants, young children and adolescents for countries with endemic disease and during outbreaks. Summary: Existing vaccines to prevent bacterial meningitis in children should be utilized in countries with significant numbers of cases of pneumococcal and/or meningococcal meningitis. Vaccines which are able to protect against more than 13 serotypes of S. pneumoniae are in clinical trials and should be able to further reduce pneumococcal meningitis cases. Cost effective meningococcal vaccines against non-A capsular groups are needed for low resource countries. There remains an urgent need for a vaccine against Group B Streptococcus, which is a major cause of neonatal meningitis globally and for which no vaccine currently exists.
Subject
children; meningococcal; pneumococcal; Group B Streptococcus; conjugate vaccines
Genre
Article; Postprint
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2024-05-09
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0442414
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88254
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Pediatrics, Department of; Medicine, Department of
Citation
McAlpine A, Sadarangani M. Meningitis vaccines in children: what have we achieved and where next?. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases 2019; 32: 510-516
Publisher DOI
10.1097/qco.0000000000000580
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

Item Media

Item Citations and Data

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International