You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 102, Issue 10
  • An increase in accident and emergency presentations for adverse events following immunisation after introduction of the group B meningococcal vaccine: an observational study

Responses

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
An increase in accident and emergency presentations for adverse events following immunisation after introduction of the group B meningococcal vaccine: an observational study
Compose a Response to This Article
Compose Response

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests

PLEASE NOTE:

  • A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in a BMJ journal; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed unless it is also republished as a Letter, Correspondence or as other content. Find out more about rapid responses.
  • We intend to post all responses which are approved by the Editor, within 14 days (BMJ Journals) or 24 hours (The BMJ), however timeframes cannot be guaranteed. Responses must comply with our requirements and should contribute substantially to the topic, but it is at our absolute discretion whether we publish a response, and we reserve the right to edit or remove responses before and after publication and also republish some or all in other BMJ publications, including third party local editions in other countries and languages
  • Our requirements are stated in our rapid response terms and conditions and must be read. These include ensuring that: i) you do not include any illustrative content including tables and graphs, ii) you do not include any information that includes specifics about any patients,iii) you do not include any original data, unless it has already been published in a peer reviewed journal and you have included a reference, iv) your response is lawful, not defamatory, original and accurate, v) you declare any competing interests, vi) you understand that your name and other personal details set out in our rapid response terms and conditions will be published with any responses we publish and vii) you understand that once a response is published, we may continue to publish your response and/or edit or remove it in the future.
  • By submitting this rapid response you are agreeing to our terms and conditions for rapid responses and understand that your personal data will be processed in accordance with those terms and our privacy notice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

Other responses

Jump to comment:

  • Published on: 5 August 2024
    Immunisation against group B meningococcal disease: clear benefits to infants in the UK.
    • Viveka K Nainani, Medical Student Oxford Vaccine Group (University of Oxford); Department of Paediatrics, Infection and Immunity, (Monash University)
    • Other Contributors:
      • Ushma Galal, Statistician
      • Jim Buttery, Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology
      • Matthew D Snape, Consultant in Paediatrics and Vaccinology

    Nainani V, Gulal U, Buttery J, Snape MD

    Word count: 234

    As authors of a recent article demonstrating an increase in Accident and Emergency presentations for acute vaccine reactions following the introduction of the group B meningococcal vaccine (4CMenB) into the UK infant immunisation schedule in 2015 (1), we welcome correspondence from Mukherjee et al emphasising the ongoing risk of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in this country.

    These data give a local perspective to the national Public Health England surveillance data demonstrating a 50% reduction in group B meningococcal disease following introduction of the 4CMenB vaccine (2). Despite immunisation with 4CMenB being 82.9% effective against group B invasive meningococcal disease in infants, there were still 56 cases in England in the year to March 2017 in under 1 year olds, and a further 119 cases in 1 to 4 year olds (an age group that currently includes both immunised and unimmunised cohorts) (2) (3). In the context of the epidemiology of meningococcal disease in the UK, the benefits of immunisation with 4CMenB to infants clearly outweigh any risks of a transient febrile reaction. The current 4CMenB immunisation campaign is not expected to induce herd immunity, therefore invasive meningococcal bacteria will continue to circulate in the community and unimmunised infants remain at increased risk of invasive meningococcal disease compared to their immunised peers. Parents and clinicians need t...

    Show More
    Conflict of Interest:
    There was no support from any organisation for the submitted work. VN and UG have no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years, no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. MDS is currently, or has been, a Principal investigator on clinical trials funded and/or sponsored by vaccine manufacturers including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Medimmune and Johnson and Johnson. MDS has also spoken at industry sponsored symposia and contributed to advisory boards. This work is undertaken on behalf of the University of Oxford and MDS receives no personal financial benefit for this work. JB is an investigator on clinical vaccine trials or observational studies sponsored by vaccine manufacturers including Novavax, Pfizer and MedImmune. JB also serves on data safety monitoring committees for Sequiris. This work is undertaken on behalf of Monash Health and JB receives no personal financial benefit for this work.
  • Published on: 20 September 2017
    Is Bexsero® (MenB vaccine) effective in preventing invasive meningococcal disease? Experience of a tertiary hospital in the UK
    • Arindam Mukherjee, Consultant Neonatologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer St Marys Hospital, Manchester
    • Other Contributors:
      • Ahmed Qamruddin, Consultant Microbiologist
      • Demetria Theodorou, ST Trainee

    Is Bexsero® (MenB vaccine) effective in preventing invasive meningococcal disease? Experience of a tertiary hospital in the UK. Novel meningococcus serogroup B vaccine (Bexsero®) was introduced in UK national immunisation programme on 1 September 2015. All babies born from July 2015 were offered the vaccine alongside other routine immunisations and all babies born in May 2015 were offered Bexsero® as a one-off catch-up. Bexsero® is estimated to protect against 73–88% of MenB strains causing invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in England and Wales1,2. Among the diseases preventable by immunisation, IMD remains a high public profile illness deserving the most rigorous consideration because of its rapid and severe onset, high mortality rate and burden of sequelae. Epidemiological data suggest that infants in the first year of life experience the highest risk of infection peaking at around 5 months and declining thereafter. We continue to observe IMD in the first year of life despite the introduction of Bexsero® in our national immunisation programme (Table 1). This retrospective data was obtained as part of service evaluation at Central Manchester University Hospital Foundation Trust from our microbiology department. We are one of the biggest integrated Children's hospitals in the UK providing a wide range of services for the North West region and have over 220,000 patient visits each year. The epidemiological year starts from July to June, rath...

    Show More
    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.