August 1, 2106 – Meningitis Vaccine

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Anchor lead: How well does a new vaccine against meningitis work? Elizabeth Tracey reports

It’s every parent’s nightmare: a meningitis outbreak where your college student goes to school.  Now a new study reports on how well a candidate vaccine performed at a US university where there was an outbreak of so-called meningococcal type B meningitis.  Mike Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains the results.

Klag: This is a new vaccine.  It was used before FDA approval, and now this study is looking at how effective it was in raising immunity against the type of meningococcus that was vaccinated. So, two thirds of that group were protected. The rest were not.  The important thing is that there were no cases of meningococcal type B disease in this population after this vaccine was administered.   :24

Klag says most vaccines don’t achieve 100% protection.

Klag: Vaccines don’t have to be perfect.  By increasing protection in the group as a whole, you prevent transmission of meningococcal type B disease.  :08

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.