Meningococcal disease is rare. According to the National Meningitis Association, the infection occurs in approximately 600 to 1000 persons per year in the US. Let’s use the high number: 1,000 persons per year. Put that in perspective: The current US population is around 325 million. The population incidence rate at 1000/325,000,000 equals an incidence rate of 1 in 0.000003. The stated death rate of meningitis is about 15% of those affected, or 0.000003 x 15% = one in 0.00000047, or .000047% of the population. And yet, they want to vaccinate 100% of all children.
Why hasn’t a vaccine for serotype B been approved for many years? Meningitis vaccines (Menomune and Menactra) for strains A, C, Y, and W-135 are made from a fragment of the bacteria’s cell wall. In the event the bacteria gets past the body’s external barriers of defense and into the blood stream, the vaccine-induced antibody seeks out the fragment sequence on the surface of the bacteria and “kills it” by a process called lysis.
Manufacturing a similar cell-wall antigen vaccine for serotype B bacteria has not been possible because the sugar sequences on the surface of the bacteria are very similar to the sugar sequences on the surface of human brain and nerve cells. Therefore, vaccine-induced antibodies can attack the brain and the nerves, potentially leading to a debilitating, life-long, autoimmune reaction.
After 15 years of research, Novartis found a method it hoped would be a work-around for this issue by using computer sequencing to examine different segments of the cell wall. The result lead to the development of Bexsero, the first vaccine against serotype B that became FDA approved in January, 2015. Trumenba, a serotype B vaccine manufactured by Pfizer, was approved April, 2015 for use in individuals 10 through 25 years of age
The CDC has unnecessarily terrorized parents into vaccinating their college-aged kids against meningitis. The media has made statements such as, “College freshmen living in dormitories were more than seven times as likely to acquire the infection leading to meningitis than college students in general and three and a half times as likely as the population of 18- to 23-year-old non-students.”
That’s interesting because CDC publications actually say something very different about the risk of meningitis when teens live in the dorm. It appears that the “risk” was created to develop a market share for the vaccine, after it was manufactured. Read what the CDC actually said:
Overall incidence of meningitis among college students usually is similar to, or somewhat lower than, the risk observed among persons in the general population of similar age….The earliest of these studies (done during academic years 1990–91 and 1991–92) indicated a low overall incidence of meningococcal disease among U.S. college students (1.0/100,000 population per year)….A retrospective cohort study conducted over 5 years (1992–1997) indicated that the overall incidence of meningococcal disease among college students was similar to that among the U.S. population of persons the same age. However, rates of disease among students living in dormitories were somewhat higher than rates among students living off campus (3.2/100,000 and 1.0/100,000, respectively — over 5 years).
So the risk increasing from 1 to 3.2 per 100,000 makes the risk “three times” greater.
The bacteria that cause meningococcal meningitis live in the back of the nose and throat and are carried by 10% to 25% of the population. Gargling and washing out the nasal passages with colloidal silver or with Lugol’s solution and a netty pot is a good idea. Taking Vitamin C ascorbates 3000-6000mg/day and keeping your Vitamin D level around 80 IU/ml can both be very supportive to the immune system.
As for recommending this vaccine in children 1-year of age in the UK, like most things in the pharmaceutical industry, it’s all about the money. This article concludes that “our models suggest that even with low vaccine prices only catch-up vaccination in 1 year old children could be cost-effective, when considered incrementally on the infant program.”
Is cost effectiveness the reason to vaccinate?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) in the UK initially refused to approve Bexsero due to lack of clinical efficacy studies. The vaccine was then approved in the EU and Australia after a trial that involved only 1,800 infants, claiming a “robust” immune response when Bexsero was given alone or along with other vaccines.” This was based on something called surrogate protection, meaning, protection is assumed (but not proven) to be due to the presence of antibodies in the blood stream. The JCVI noted that efficacy against the disease has not been established and interestingly, that Bexsero’s antibody response waned rapidly.
Think Before You Vaccinate — Health Does Not Come Through a Needle.