Biomaterial Database

A vaccine against serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis: dealing with uncertainty. 2014

Sophie M Andrews, and Andrew J Pollard

Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: sophie.andrews@msdtc.ox.ac.uk.

Neisseria meningitidis is an important cause of invasive bacterial infection in children worldwide. Although serogroup C meningococcal disease has all but disappeared in the past decade as a direct result of immunisation programmes in Europe, Canada, and Australia, meningitis and septicaemia caused by serogroup B meningococci remain uncontrolled. A vaccine (4CMenB) has now been licensed for use in the European Union, comprising three immunogenic antigens (identified with use of reverse vaccinology) combined with bacterial outer-membrane vesicles. The vaccine has the potential to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with serogroup B meningococci infections, but uncertainty remains about the breadth of protection the vaccine might induce against the diverse serogroup B meningococci strains that cause disease. We discuss drawbacks in the techniques used to estimate coverage and potential efficacy of the vaccine, and their effects on estimates of cost-effectiveness, both with and without herd immunity. For parents, and clinicians treating individual patients, the predicted benefits of vaccination outweigh existing uncertainties if any cases can be prevented, but future use of the vaccine must be followed by rigorous post-implementation surveillance to reassess its value to health systems with directly recorded epidemiological data.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008589	Meningococcal Infections	Infections with bacteria of the species NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS.	Meningococcal Septicemia,Infections, Meningococcal,Meningococcal Disease,Infection, Meningococcal,Meningococcal Diseases,Meningococcal Infection,Septicemia, Meningococcal
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D003362	Cost-Benefit Analysis	A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. In contrast a cost effectiveness in general compares cost with qualitative outcomes.	Cost and Benefit,Cost-Benefit Data,Benefits and Costs,Cost Benefit,Cost Benefit Analysis,Cost-Utility Analysis,Costs and Benefits,Economic Evaluation,Marginal Analysis,Analyses, Cost Benefit,Analysis, Cost Benefit,Analysis, Cost-Benefit,Analysis, Cost-Utility,Analysis, Marginal,Benefit and Cost,Cost Benefit Analyses,Cost Benefit Data,Cost Utility Analysis,Cost-Benefit Analyses,Cost-Utility Analyses,Data, Cost-Benefit,Economic Evaluations,Evaluation, Economic,Marginal Analyses
D005062	European Union	An economic union with the principal objectives of free movement of goods, capital, and labor. The constituent countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. (https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries accessed 12/31/2020)	Common Market,Euratom,European Atomic Energy Community,European Coal and Steel Community,European Common Market,European Community,European Economic Community,Community, European Economic,EEC,Economic Community, European,Common Market, European,Common Markets,Common Markets, European,Communities, European,Communities, European Economic,Community, European,Economic Communities, European,European Common Markets,European Communities,European Economic Communities,Market, Common,Market, European Common,Union, European
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D022401	Meningococcal Vaccines	Vaccines or candidate vaccines used to prevent infection with NEISSERIA MENINGITIDIS.	Bivalent Meningococcal Vaccine,Menactra,Meningococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine,Meningococcal Vaccine,Menomune,Menveo,Tetravalent Meningococcal Vaccine,Meningococcal Vaccine, Bivalent,Meningococcal Vaccine, Tetravalent,Polysaccharide Vaccine, Meningococcal,Vaccine, Meningococcal,Vaccine, Meningococcal Polysaccharide,Vaccines, Meningococcal
D035501	Uncertainty	The condition in which reasonable knowledge regarding risks, benefits, or the future is not available.
D038541	Neisseria meningitidis, Serogroup B	Strains of Neisseria meningitidis which are the most common ones causing infections or disease in infants. Serogroup B strains are isolated most frequently in sporadic cases, and are less common in outbreaks and epidemics.	Meningococcus, Serogroup B,Meningococci, Serogroup B