title: Routinely vaccinating adolescents against meningococcus: targeting transmission & disease.
abstract: Adolescents have the highest rates of meningococcal carriage and transmission. Interrupting the adolescent habitat in order to reduce carriage and transmission within adolescents and to other age groups could help to control meningococcal disease at a population level. Compared to immunization strategies restricted to young children, a strategy focused on adolescents may have more profound and long-lasting indirect impacts, and may be more cost effective. Despite challenges in reaching this age-group, experience with other vaccines show that high vaccine coverage of adolescents is attainable.
authors.affiliation: a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines , Wavre , Belgium.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vetter
authors.affiliation: b Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center , Oakland , CA , U.S.A.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.affiliation: a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines , Wavre , Belgium.
authors.forename: Gülhan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Denizer
authors.affiliation: c Department of Pediatrics , FCM da Santa Casa de Sáo Paulo , Sáo Paulo , Brazil.
authors.forename: Marco A P
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sáfadi
authors.affiliation: d Department of Clinical Sciences, Pediatrics , Umeå University , Umeå , Sweden.
authors.forename: Sven-Arne
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Silfverdal
authors.affiliation: a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines , Wavre , Belgium.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vyse
authors.affiliation: e Vaccine Evaluation Unit , Public Health England , Manchester , U.K .
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Borrow
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002353:Carrier State / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D008585:Meningitis, Meningococcal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines
keywords: Neisseria meningitidis; adolescent; carriage; cost-effectiveness; epidemiology; herd protection; transmission; vaccine