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. 2023 Dec;12(12):2649-2663.
doi: 10.1007/s40121-023-00888-w. Epub 2023 Dec 4.

Meningococcal Disease in the Post-COVID-19 Era: A Time to Prepare

David E Bloom  1 , Paolo Bonanni  2 , Federico Martinón-Torres  3   4   5 , Peter C Richmond  6   7 , Marco A P Safadi  8 , David M Salisbury  9 , Apostolos Charos  10 , Katharina Schley  11 , Jamie Findlow  12 , Paul Balmer  13
Affiliations

Meningococcal Disease in the Post-COVID-19 Era: A Time to Prepare

David E Bloom et al. Infect Dis Ther. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

The global invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) landscape changed considerably during the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by decreased incidence rates due to COVID-19 mitigation measures, such as limited social contact, physical distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. Vaccination rates were also lower during the pandemic relative to pre-pandemic levels. Although policymakers may have shifted their focus away from IMD vaccination programs to COVID-19 vaccination programs, strong arguments support implementation and prioritization of IMD vaccination programs; IMD cases have increased in some countries and IMD rates may even have exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Additional concerns include increased susceptibility due to vaccination coverage gaps, increased incidence of other respiratory pathogens, immunity debt from lockdown restrictions, and increased IMD epidemiologic variability. The full range of benefits of widely available and effective meningococcal vaccines needs to be considered, especially in health technology assessments, where the broad benefits of these vaccines are neither accurately quantified nor captured in implementation policy decisions. Importantly, implementation of meningococcal vaccination programs in the current IMD climate also appeals to broader healthcare principles, including preparedness rather than reactive approaches, generally accepted benefit-risk approaches to vaccination, historical precedent, and the World Health Organization's goal of defeating meningitis by 2030. Countries should therefore act swiftly to bolster existing meningococcal vaccination strategies to provide broad coverage across age groups and serogroups given the recent increases in IMD incidence.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Immunization programs; Incidence; Vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

Marco A.P. Safadi has received research grants and consultancy fees from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Sanofi Pasteur. David M. Salisbury has received consultancy fees from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Sanofi Pasteur. Paolo Bonanni has received research grants and consultancy fees from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Sanofi Pasteur, MSD, Seqirus, and Moderna. Federico Martinón-Torres has received honoraria from GSK group of companies, Pfizer Inc, Sanofi, MSD, Seqirus, Biofabri, and Janssen for taking part in advisory boards and expert meetings and for acting as a speaker in congresses outside the scope of the submitted work. He has also acted as principal investigator in randomized controlled trials of the aforementioned companies and Ablynx, Gilead, Regeneron, Roche, Abbott, Novavax, and MedImmune, with honoraria paid to his institution. Peter C. Richmond’s institution has received research grants and consultancy fees for participation in scientific advisory boards from Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, and Janssen. Katharina Schley, Apostolos Charos, Paul Balmer, and Jamie Findlow are employees of Pfizer and may hold stock or stock options. David E. Bloom has worked on research grants or received travel support or honoraria from Pfizer, Merck, GSK, Moderna, Bavarian Nordic, Janssen, and Sanofi.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Examples of IMD epidemiology before and after implementation of mass vaccination programs including: A MenA cases in 9 African countries (reproduced with permission from Trotter and colleagues) [52], B MenC cases in England [54], and C MenW incidence by age group in Chile (reproduced with permission from Villena and colleagues) [59]. IMD invasive meningococcal disease, MenA meningococcal serogroup A, MenC meningococcal serogroup C, MenW meningococcal serogroup W, Non-MenA other meningococcal serogroups, Non-Men pathogens other than Neisseria meningitidis
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Summary of arguments supporting implementation of meningococcal vaccination programs in the context of IMD incidence in the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic eras. IMD invasive meningococcal disease, WHO World Health Organization
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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