Modeling future changes to the meningococcal serogroup C conjugate (MCC) vaccine program in England and Wales.
Trotter, Caroline L;
Edmunds, W John;
Ramsay, Mary E;
Miller, Elizabeth;
(2006)
Modeling future changes to the meningococcal serogroup C conjugate (MCC) vaccine program in England and Wales.
Human vaccines, 2 (2).
pp. 68-73.
ISSN 1554-8600
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4161/hv.2.2.2611
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The UK meningococcal serogroup C conjugate (MCC) vaccine program has successfully controlled serogroup C disease, due to high vaccine effectiveness and substantial herd immunity. However, children immunised at 2, 3 and 4 months of age receive only short-term direct protection and may be at risk of disease 15 months after vaccination. To investigate this we applied a mathematical model to predict the future epidemiology of serogroup C disease, with and without changes to the immunization schedule. Only a few cases of serogroup C disease were predicted to occur over the next few years because of persisting herd immunity, even without a change to the vaccine schedule. The inclusion of a booster dose is likely to improve the impact of the MCC program and reducing the number of doses in infancy will improve cost-effectiveness and create space in the schedule for the addition of other vaccines.