Vaccination against meningococcal disease in Europe: review and recommendations for the use of conjugate vaccines

At the end of 2005, six European countries had implemented public immunization campaigns with serogroup C conjugate vaccines, and all had experienced substantial declines in the incidence of serogroup C disease. A quadrivalent ACWY meningococcal vaccine is in use in the USA, but serogroup A is extremely rare in Europe and serogroups Y and W135 are infrequent causes of disease. This paper outlines recommendations on the use of conjugate vaccines in Europe based on the experience with meningococcal C conjugate (MCC) vaccines so far.