Post-vaccination Alteration in Meningococcal Disease Rate in the US from 1980-2019

Aim: To study the impact of vaccination on Meningococcal infection in the United States from 1980 to 2019.

Study Design: The study used deidentified publicly available data.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Anatomical & Developmental Sciences, and Pathological Processes, Microbiology & Immunology, Department of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology, Department of Nutritional, Biochemical & Molecular Sciences American University, School of Medicine, Aruba, Between July 2023 to September 2023.

Methodology: All analyses for this study were conducted using The Health, United States Data Finder, Center for Disease Control, which provides detailed trend tables and charts for recent editions of Health, United States. All the data was collected and compared year-wise, age-wise, and new cases of meningococcal infection per 100,000 population. The data was also compared concerning the year of initiation of the vaccine.

Results: With time, it was observed that the cases of meningococcal infection declined. The rate was found to be higher with the initiation of vaccination.

Conclusion: Stringent vaccination, surveillance, and timely use of antibiotics in the United States contributed to the drop in instances of meningococcal infection. However, the recent outbreak in Florida could be due to negligence among the people.