Protecting Youth from Meningitis: The Importance of Vaccination and Who May Still Need it

The extraordinary vaccination campaign against four types of meningitis (A, C, W and Y) for those born between 2001 and 2006 (young people between the ages of 22 and 17 today) came to an end last year, but, as almost always In this type of public health ‘play-off’ measures, the door has been left open to those who could not or did not want to be administered the drug when it corresponded to them. In the case of Burgos, according to official data from the Ministry of Health, there are 5,081 young people who did not respond to the call, but only 158 expressly refused to protect themselves. As for the rest, it is not specified for what reason they did not finally get the vaccine, although in many cases it may be that they were not located. In total, in Burgos, 74% of the cohort was protected, which was made up of 19,528 adolescents and young people.

Meningitis is a serious disease, which can have different causes. Some, in fact, are caused by viruses and are usually less severe than bacterial ones, which are triggered by infections caused by different microorganisms. One of them is meningococcus, of which several subtypes are known: A, B, C, W and Y. There are vaccines for all of them, which are administered at different ages and separately.

In Castilla y León, for example, the vaccine against meningitis B (which usually affects children) is administered at 2, 4 and 12 months; to protect against C, another is placed at 4 months; and, at 12 months, the tetravalent is injected, to act against types A, C, W and Y in the same dose. This last vaccine was introduced into the calendar in 2019, given the increase in meningitis of several of these types. And, then, it was also decided to introduce a booster dose of the tetravalent at 12 years.

With these changes, however, there was no direct action on a large group of adolescents and young people; A population that, in addition to having a potential risk of getting sick from a meningococcus of this type, is also the one with the highest percentage of ‘asymptomatic carriers’. In other words, it is at those ages when there is a greater chance of carrying meningococcus in the throat and, even if they are not going to develop the disease, they can infect other people with a higher risk of becoming ill. Especially, over 65 years.

For this reason, the Ministry of Health and the Communities agreed to initiate a campaign to recruit a large cohort (19,528 people in Burgos) that would allow the protection of youth and, at the same time, the rest of society.

Last year the campaign was terminated, but in Health they emphasize that if someone born between 2001 and 2006 did not participate at the time, they have time to do so. You can make an appointment at the health center and receive the quadrivalent vaccine, against types A, C, W and Y.