7. The meningitis C campaign
The purpose of the meningitis C campaign was to immunise as many as possible of the country's 15 million young people and children aged under the age of 18 years in as short a time as possible, immunising those most at risk of disease first.
As the vaccine was new, there was no stockpile available. Implementation of the programme was therefore done according to the risk of disease—those at greatest risk being immunised first. The routine immunisation with the vaccine at the ages of two, three and four months - alongside the DTP, Hib and polio vaccines - was added to the national childhood programme in November 1999. Immunisation of adolescents aged between 15 and 17 years was completed by December 1999.
Around 13 million children were immunised during the first year, and general practitioners, nurses, immunisation co-ordinators and many other health professionals did a fantastic job in making the campaign a success.
This was followed by an extensive catch-up programme to immunise all other children and adolescents up to the age of 18 years during 2000/2001. After that the vaccine was made available to anyone up to 25 years.
The programme was a great victory for the NHS, and uptake of the meningitis C vaccine was excellent with approximately 18 million doses of vaccine distributed.
The impact of the meningitis C campaign
Prior to the introduction of the Meningitis C vaccine, group C meningococcal disease was the second most common cause of meningococcal disease, accounting for around 40 per cent of cases.
The incidence of meningococcal infection has fallen every year since, and the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of group C meningococcal disease across all age groups immunised has dropped by 90% since the vaccine was introduced. In 2003/04, there were only 65 cases reported and 8 deaths. (See figure 1. Laboratory confirmed cases of meningococcal disease)
There was even a good impact in those who were not immunised with a reduction of about 70%, suggesting that the vaccine has had a community protection effect.
Indeed the campaign has been so successful that meningitis C disease now accounts for less than 10% of meningococcal meningitis cases. However, health officials and medical professionals need to remain vigilant. Meningitis B now accounts for more than 80% of cases of meningococcal disease and no vaccine is currently available.
The Department of Health continues to work closely with the Health Protection Agency, meningitis charities and pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure a group B vaccine becomes available in the UK as soon as possible. Work to find an effective Men B vaccine continues as a priority through the National Vaccine Evaluation research programme.
