Epidemiological Profile of Meningitis following Pentavalent Vaccination in Iran: Impact of Vaccine Introduction

Authors

Saber Heidari^1, , Manoochehr Karami^{1, 2, *,} , Seyed Mohsen Zahraei³, Iraj Sedighi⁴, Fatemeh Azimian Zavareh³

¹Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

²Research Center for Health Sciences, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

³Center for Communicable Diseases Control, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran

⁴Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran

^*Corresponding author. Email: man.karami@yahoo.com

DOI

10.2991/jegh.k.210330.001How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Haemophilus influenzae; meningitis; vaccines; Iran

Abstract

Ensuring the effectiveness of the Haemophilus influenza type b (DTwP-Hib-HepB) vaccine in reducing meningitis is an essential approach in evaluating the effectiveness of the vaccine. The study aimed to address the epidemiology of meningitis following pentavalent vaccination in Iran. Data on meningitis patients from 21st March 2011 to 21st July 2018 were extracted from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. This information was divided into two equal periods before the pentavalent vaccine introduction (21st March 2011 to 17th November 2014) and after the introduction (18th November 2014 to 21st July 2018). The number of patients in the study period was 53,174 cases. More than 55% of patients were under 5 years old. Males (63.34%) were more than females (36.06%). The death rate was reduced to 2.1%; also, the proportion of confirmed cases caused by H. influenzae type b was 6.7% before the pentavalent vaccine introduction. The corresponding value following vaccine introduction equals to 3.6%. The proportion of children under five has decreased from 4.4% to 1.9%. This value indicates a 46.2% decrease in the meningitis of all ages and a 57% decrease in children under five dues to H. influenzae vaccination. The results of the study indicate the effectiveness of the vaccine due to changes in meningitis caused by H. influenzae type b after vaccination compared with no vaccination. Therefore, it is advisable to continue the full immunization coverage with the pentavalent vaccine.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Saber Heidari
AU  - Manoochehr Karami
AU  - Seyed Mohsen Zahraei
AU  - Iraj Sedighi
AU  - Fatemeh Azimian Zavareh
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/04/03
TI  - Epidemiological Profile of Meningitis following Pentavalent Vaccination in Iran: Impact of Vaccine Introduction
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 310
EP  - 315
VL  - 11
IS  - 3
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/jegh.k.210330.001
DO  - 10.2991/jegh.k.210330.001
ID  - Heidari2021
ER  -