Teens should get booster dose of meningococcal vaccine, delegates decide

If a teenage patient reports a high fever, pediatrician Stanley E. Grogg, DO, says he would feel “much more comfortable” ruling out bacterial meningitis if that patient had received a booster dose of the vaccine against the disease.

More teenagers may now get a second vaccination with the quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MCV4), which protects against four subtypes of meningococcus. The AOA House of Delegates voted yesterday to support a booster dose of MCV4 at age 16 for young people who received the first dose at ages 11 to 12. This dosing schedule follows recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

[story-sidebar id=”182102″]

Studies indicate the vaccine protects less than 50% of recipients five years after vaccination, providing reduced immunity between the ages of 16 and 21 when the risk of meningococcal disease is greatest, according to the ACIP. That age group is more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as sharing drinking glasses and other close contact, including living in a college dormitory, as well as smoking cigarettes, Dr. Grogg told The DO. He is the AOA’s liaison to the ACIP and a professor of pediatrics at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine in Tulsa.

Although the incidence of meningococcal disease in the overall population is only about one in 100,000, the infection can spread rapidly and cause severe morbidity or even death.

In other action, the House voted to support administration of a two-dose primary series of MCV4, given two months apart, in patients with sickle cell anemia ages 2 to 54. These patients are at increased risk of death due to invasive meningococcal disease because of functional asplenia. Studies have shown that these patients do not develop an adequate immune response after a single dose of MCV4.

Both vaccination resolutions originated from the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians and easily passed the House.