Analysis of Meningococcal Serogroup C-Specific Antibody Levels in British Columbian Children and Adolescents

Abstract

The effects of age, sex, and possible prior exposure to serogroup C meningococci on group C-specific antibody levels (total and functional) were examined in 2- to 19-year-olds just before and 1 and 12 months after immunization with divalent (groups A + C) meningococcal capsular polysaccharide vaccine. Only age was found to have a significant effect on antibody levels. At 1 month, only 50% of 2- to 6-year-olds had detectable serum bactericidal antibody, in contrast to 84.1% and 96.3% of 9- to 12- and 13- to 19-year-olds respectively. By 12 months, only 20%, 40.9%, and 53.8% of subjects in these age groups had serum bactericidal antibody, suggesting that current meningococcal C polysaccharide vaccines provide only short-term protection. However, the drop in total specific antibody levels (by EIA) was less pronounced. Persistence of antibodies detectable by EIA (but not serum bactericidal antibodies) suggests that this vaccine may also give rise to antibodies of low affinity or directed to nonfunctional (nonprotective) epitopes (or both).

Evaluation of De-O-Acetylated Meningococcal C Polysaccharide-Tetanus Toxoid Conjugate Vaccine in Infancy: Reactogenicity, Immunogenicity, Immunologic Priming, and Bactericidal Activity against O-Acetylated and De-O-Acetylated Serogroup C Strains

“…The SBA response to the booster MCC-TT vaccine was higher than the response to primary immunization and the response in naive toddlers receiving MCC-TT vaccine at this age (27a). The antibody response to the booster MACP vaccine was greater than in naive children given this vaccine (7,20,22), confirming the successful induction of immunologic memory. The presence of memory is sufficient for long-term protection following administration of Hib conjugate vaccines (5,28) and is expected to be sufficient after administration of MCC vaccines, although the high incidence of MenC disease in adolescence (25) means that a longer duration of protection is required.…”

Meningococcal Disease in Los Angeles County, California, and among Men in the County Jails

“…Recent studies of pharyngeal carriage during community outbreaks of clonal serogroup C disease have repeatedly demonstrated low rates of carriage of the implicated pathogenic strain. 10,21,[32][33][34][35] These findings suggest a plausible link between the jail system and serogroup C meningococcal disease in the community -namely, the transmission of a more virulent but rarely carried strain of N. meningitidis from the jail to the community by asymptomatic carriers released from jail.…”

Relative importance of complement-mediated bactericidal and opsonic activity for protection against meningococcal disease

“…Other recent studies from North America and Europe confirmed that SBA titers of ≥1:4 were relatively uncommon in young adults (depending on the strain, typically 10 to 25%) [32-36]. While SBA titers of ≥1:4 are less prevalent in the population than they were in the United States in the 1960s, there has not been a corresponding increase in the incidence of meningococcal disease (since 2000, rates of disease in the U.S. have been the lowest in the last 50 years, ∼0.33 per 100,000 per year1).…”