Vaccines to Prevent Meningitis: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions
Center for Vaccine Innovation and Access, PATH, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
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Academic Editor: James Stuart
Microorganisms 2021, 9(4), 771; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9040771
Received: 13 March 2021
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Revised: 2 April 2021
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Accepted: 2 April 2021
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Published: 7 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacterial Meningitis: Epidemiology and Vaccination)
Despite advances in the development and introduction of vaccines against the major bacterial causes of meningitis, the disease and its long-term after-effects remain a problem globally. The Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 aims to accelerate progress through visionary and strategic goals that place a major emphasis on preventing meningitis via vaccination. Global vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) is the most advanced, such that successful and low-cost combination vaccines incorporating Hib are broadly available. More affordable pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are becoming increasingly available, although countries ineligible for donor support still face access challenges and global serotype coverage is incomplete with existing licensed vaccines. Meningococcal disease control in Africa has progressed with the successful deployment of a low-cost serogroup A conjugate vaccine, but other serogroups still cause outbreaks in regions of the world where broadly protective and affordable vaccines have not been introduced into routine immunization programs. Progress has lagged for prevention of neonatal meningitis and although maternal vaccination against the leading cause, group B streptococcus (GBS), has progressed into clinical trials, no GBS vaccine has thus far reached Phase 3 evaluation. This article examines current and future efforts to control meningitis through vaccination.
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Keywords:
meningitis; meningococcus; pneumococcus; Haemophilus influenzae; Hib; group B streptococcus; conjugate vaccine
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Alderson, M.R.; Welsch, J.A.; Regan, K.; Newhouse, L.; Bhat, N.; Marfin, A.A. Vaccines to Prevent Meningitis: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions. Microorganisms 2021, 9, 771. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9040771
AMA Style
Alderson MR, Welsch JA, Regan K, Newhouse L, Bhat N, Marfin AA. Vaccines to Prevent Meningitis: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions. Microorganisms. 2021; 9(4):771. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9040771
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlderson, Mark R., Jo A. Welsch, Katie Regan, Lauren Newhouse, Niranjan Bhat, and Anthony A. Marfin. 2021. "Vaccines to Prevent Meningitis: Historical Perspectives and Future Directions" Microorganisms 9, no. 4: 771. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9040771
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