[Effectiveness of the anti-meningococcal vaccine VA-MENGO-BC in the first year of life of Cuban children, 1997-2008].

Introduction: meningococcal disease is an important health problem worldwide. Since 1991 the vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC has been used in Cuban under one-year old infants.

Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine VA-MENGO-BC METHODS: for the evaluation after licensing this vaccine, all the infants affected by meningococcal disease between 1997 and 2008 were studied.

Results: a total number of 114 cases were recorded. The annual average incidence was 7.1 per 100 000 infants. The mean vaccinal effectiveness for the period was 84.0 %, ranging from 68 % to 104 %. The frequency of disease in unvaccinated children was 20.2 % (23/114); 79.8 % (91/114) within the vaccination age, but only 75.8 % (69/91) of them had confirmed the immunization date. Only 26.4 % (24/91) had one single dose applied whereas 73.6 % (67/91) had completed their vaccination schedule (2 doses). The meningococcal disease prevailed in the first six months of life, declined afterwards and then started to rise again at 10 and 11 months of age. The meningeal form of clinical presentation predominated (89.5 %); case-fatality rate was 7.0 % (8/114), being 4.4 % for meningococcemia and 2,6 % for meningitis.

Conclusions: the vaccine VA-MENGOC-BC effectiveness in infants was satisfactory. It is suggested that further analysis be made by a group of experts on the use of a booster dose.