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- Published on: 25 August 2017
- Published on: 25 August 2017Is Bexsero® (MenB vaccine) effective in preventing invasive meningococcal disease? Experience of a tertiary hospital in the UK
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...
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None declared.