Health officials want to expand vaccinations, government “will follow this advice”

Since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, France has faced a resurgence of meningococci, prompting the High Health Authority to expand vaccination.

Vaccination against meningitis, which is currently mandatory in infants against only one family of bacteria, should become more widely available to combat the resurgence of these diseases, the High Authority for Health (HAS) ruled this Wednesday, March 27.

“If the implementation of prevention measures during the Covid-19 crisis significantly reduced these infections, the latest data show the resumption of the circulation of meningococci in France,” the HAS underlines.

“The government will follow this opinion and I salute the work of the High Health Authority which will allow us to solidify our strategy to fight meningococci,” commented Health Minister Frédéric Valleteaux to BFMTV.

It will specify the method of implementing this recommendation “in the coming days”.

A single vaccine in two doses

Meningitis is a particularly serious infection of the brain and spinal cord. They are fatal about one in ten times and often cause significant neurological sequelae the rest of the time.

It is most often caused by a virus, but sometimes by bacteria, called meningococci. In the face of this, vaccination is possible, but is complicated by the existence of many different groups of meningococci.

Currently, vaccination for group C meningococci is mandatory for children under one year of age, although it is also strongly recommended for group B.

However, “serogroups W and Y have increased significantly, especially in infants and young people”, underlines the HAS, highlighting the highly lethal nature of meningococcal W infection in particular.

As a result, the authority now recommends compulsory vaccination of children under one year of age against meningococci A, B, W and Y, as well as C.

Vaccination will be done with a single vaccine – in two doses – four for strains A, C, W and Y, and another for strain B.

The HAS has also revised its recommendations for older children, although this time it is not a question of moving to responsibility.

Currently, only meningococcal C vaccination is recommended until age 24, but only if the patient did not receive it as a child.

From now on, for meningococci A, C, W and Y, a new dose is recommended for 11-14 year olds, even if they were vaccinated under one year of age.

On the other hand, the HAS still does not recommend the meningococcal B vaccine in adolescents and young adults, as infections associated with this strain are considered very rare in this age group.