Meningitis Outbreak in France: Rising Cases and Vaccine Updates

2023-09-17 03:56:00

Cases of meningitis recorded in France have exploded in recent months. The National Reference Center for meningococci – a bacteria causing inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord – at the Pasteur Institute has identified a cumulative 365 cases across the five serogroups. (A, B, C, W, Y) over seven months at the end of July 2023, compared to 270 cases per year on average over the same months between 2014 and 2019. Among these serogroups, B represents 43% of cases, Y and W – those which have been increasing in mainland France for several weeks – 27% each. As for C, it has been subject to compulsory vaccination in early childhood since 2019 (hence its current non-representativeness when it represented 40% of cases in 2009, Editor’s note).
And in Reunion? “Before the Covid-19 crisis, each year in Reunion, less than 5 cases of invasive meningococcal infections (2 to 4 between 2015 and 2018) were declared, explains Santé Publique France Réunion. We have not produced a recent report on the evolution of the IIMs which could be disseminated as is. But, a report on notifiable diseases, including IIM, is planned by the end of this year and will be disseminated. However, in recent post-Covid years, an average of 2 cases of IMD were reported each year in infants and young adults. Subject to consolidation of the latest measures of the last current year, we do not observe, in Reunion, an evolution of IIMs as observed since the end of 2022 in mainland France.

NEW VACCINES IN 2024?

A reassuring finding, especially since meningitis is not a trivial infection: around one in ten people die from it – death can occur within 24 hours – and almost 50% of other cases are affected by after-effects which can be very disabling. : total or partial blindness, paralysis, amputation, etc. “Since 2022, vaccination of infants against meningococcus B has been introduced into the vaccination schedule (but without being obligatory, Editor’s note). The vaccination schedule includes two doses and a booster. First dose at the age of 3 months followed by a second dose at 5 months and a booster at 12 months, with the possibility of catch-up up to 24 years of age. For children in the 2022 cohort aged 8 months, meningococcal B vaccination coverage (1 dose) was 39.2%, or 10 points lower than vaccination coverage in mainland France. Efforts therefore remain to be made in terms of vaccination coverage to protect the most vulnerable people and, more generally, the general population.underlines Public Health France Réunion.
Vaccines for C and for B therefore. And what about Y and W, who are at the origin of the increase in cases in mainland France? “There are quadrivalent vaccines (A, C, W and Y) but which are only used in France in very specific cases for the moment while other European countries have already adopted them., specifies the Pasteur Institute. Another vaccine, pentavalent (covering the five groups, Editor’s note) has just completed its clinical evaluation tests.
Each year, the High Authority of Health reviews its vaccination policy before publishing the vaccination schedule. Will quadrivalents make their appearance there? Will she recommend the vaccination of seniors and the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable in Reunion due to frequent comorbidities? Response in a few months.
Mireille Legait