title: Carriage of serogroup C meningococci 1 year after meningococcal C conjugate polysaccharide vaccination.
abstract: The UK was the first place to introduce meningococcal serogroup C conjugate (MCC) vaccines. From November, 1999, all people younger than 18 years, about 14 million individuals, were offered MCC immunisation. The uptake rate was more than 70% by November, 2000. We compared the carriage of meningococci in isolates we obtained from 14,064 students aged 15-17 years during vaccination in 1999, with those from 16,583 students of the same age surveyed 1 year later. Carriage of serogroup C meningococci was reduced by 66% (p=0.004). Our results show that MCC vaccines protect against carriage of meningococci that express serogroup C polysaccharide capsules.
authors.affiliation: The Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3SY, UK. martin.maiden@zoo.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Martin C J
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Maiden
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Stuart
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002353:Carrier State / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines; C410218:serogroup C meningococcal conjugate vaccine