Meningococcal disease is both unpredictable and deadly, killing 10% to 20% of those who contract it.
Consider meningococcal disease, a rare but devastating bacteria-caused illness that primarily affects infants and children.
Among other symptoms, meningococcal meningitis can result in a red rash which looks like red pin pricks.
In millions of patients, meningococcal vaccines have demonstrated excellent safety profiles similar to those of other routinely administered vaccines.
In the same period of 2001 there were 79 confirmed cases of group C meningococcal infection and three deaths.
Most people have a natural resistance to meningococcal meningitis, but there is a small risk of complications, particularly for children under five.
The Public Health Agency of Canada calls for use of a meningococcal vaccine as early as two months of age.
Still, eight of 10 had the Tdap vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, while 63 percent had the MCV4 meningococcal vaccine.
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History has shown, however, that spikes in the incidence of meningococcal disease can occur over a short time period and without warning.
"It is important that the possibility of meningococcal infection is considered in individuals who have recently returned from Saudi Arabia, " said Professor Donaldson.
To date, a total of 19.5 million people have received the meningococcal A conjugate vaccine manufactured by SERUM and developed through the MVP partnership.
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Many industrialized nations, including Australia, Canada and 13 European nations, consider the threat of meningococcal disease to be sufficiently high to recommend routine infant vaccinations.
In the late 1990s Novartis researchers decoded the genome of the Neisseria meningitidis B bacterium, which is responsible for one-third of cases of meningococcal meningitis.
In the first nine months of 1999, before the immunisation campaign started, there were 551 confirmed cases of group C meningococcal infection and 47 deaths.
Given the success of current U.S. vaccine programs that have almost eliminated many other infections, the prevention of meningococcal disease qualifies as an unmet public health need.
As well as the annual flu nasal spray, the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation has recommended that S3 girls and boys also be vaccinated against meningococcal C.
Also according to WHO, the inclusion of the meningococcal vaccine in infant vaccination programs in the Netherlands and Canada has shown efficacy of 87% to 98% in various studies.
The Bexsero vaccine licensed by the European Commission is the first to cover meningococcal B meningitis - until now vaccines had protected against only some of the bacterial types involved.
Three pharmaceutical manufacturers produce FDA-approved vaccines for meningococcal disease.
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Vaccination against meningococcal infection is a public health imperative.
Antibiotics given quickly are the treatment for meningococcal infection.
In 2007, an all-time low point for the incidence of meningococcal disease, the CDC estimated that there were 1, 000 cases and 130 deaths nationally, compared with 2, 800 cases and 300 fatalities a decade earlier.
In the late 1990s Novartis (nyse: NVS - news - people ) researchers decoded the genome of the Neisseria meningitidis B bacterium, which is responsible for one-third of cases of meningococcal meningitis.
Tests were being done to see if the strain of illness is similar to the meningococcal infections that circulated among gay men in New York City and infected 22 people, resulting in seven fatalities, since 2010.
But in early 2010, around the same time that a vaccine to prevent meningococcal disease in infants was submitted to the FDA for approval, the CDC began to show signs of backing away from its earlier resolve.
Read said Pfizer's mid- to late-stage drug pipeline "continues to strengthen with key potential opportunities, " including drugs for advanced breast cancer and three other types of cancer, one for high cholesterol and a meningococcal B vaccine for adolescents and young adults.
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