Evaluating the Impact of an Immunisation Program of Meningococcal B Vaccine - Report Example

Report on Introduction and Evaluation of Meningococcal B Vaccine Student’s Name College Part 1 Task Description As a matter of fact, bacterial meningitis is caused by the bacteria Neisseria Meningitidis. In humans, six distinguishable serotypes exist that causes the pandemic disease namely: A, B, C, W135 and Y. Geographically, serotypes are distributed differently, where Africa is dominated by serotype A, while serotypes B and C are predominant in Australia, North America and Europe. Importantly, there are several vaccines for the disease that include conjugate and polysaccharide technologies. Available vaccines comprise of the tetravalent vaccine that offers protection against serogroups A, C, W135 and Y and monovalent vaccines for every serogroups A, B, and C. Many nations have effectively introduced meningococcal routine immunization programs, comprising of meningococcal C (for instance, Canada, UK, Australia) together with meningococcal A vaccine (for example, ‘meningitis belt nations of Africa’). Fortunately, Australia has recently licensed a new meningococcal B vaccine in the year 2013 together with many other nations. Meningococcal B is readily available for consumption in the Australian private market, but up to till now, it has never been integrated in the normal immunization programs. Introduction of a New National Meningococcal B Immunization Program My chosen country, Australia in this task which is a high income country, involves the consideration of whether the national government would include the meningococcal B vaccine within the government funded National Immunization Program. Clinical Place for Meningococcal B Vaccine Actually, invasive meningococcal B disease (IMD) turns to be an unusual illness that is brought about by the bacterium Neisseria meningitides (NCIRS, 2013). In 2011, the number of Australian cases reported added up to 184 (0.82 in every 100,000) and roughly 11 mortalities were recorded. Data that has been gathered between the years 1991 – 2011 reveals that occurrence is bimodal. In this scenario, the confirmed cases of Read More