The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Thursday unanimously approved a review of the dosage and dosing interval for the group B meningococcal vaccine MenB-4C (Bexsero).
ACIP, by a 15-0 vote, recommends that when administering MenB-4C to healthy adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 23 years, MenB-4C should be administered in two consecutive doses at months 0 and 6. did. Serogroup B meningococcal disease.
The committee also recommends that MenB-4C be administered as three consecutive doses at months 0, 1 to 2, and 6 months to people aged 10 years and older who are at high risk for serogroup B meningococcal disease. I also voted in favor of the recommendation. Those at increased risk include those with anatomic or functional asplenia, complement component deficiencies, and complement inhibitor users. Microbiologists are routinely exposed to meningococcal isolates. People at increased risk during the outbreak.
Previous recommendations called for MenB-4C to be administered as a two-dose series at 0 months and 1 month later in both healthy adolescents and young adults and those at high risk.
MenB-4C was originally granted accelerated approval in 2015 and received full approval from the FDA in August. The new recommendations align the dosing and spacing of GSK’s vaccine with both recent label changes and Pfizer’s meningococcal group B vaccine, MenB-FHbp (Trumenba).
Sarah Silly, MD, MPH, MBA, a member of the ACIP working group studying the proposed recommendations, said adjusting the dosage and spacing of the two vaccines would be “viewed favorably” by health care providers. ”, he pointed out, is highly likely.
“I think it’s important to harmonize recommendations,” said Helen Chu, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Yvonne “Bonnie” Maldonado, M.D., of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif., said that in the future, “unshared decision-making will be used to minimize complexity for primary care providers.” ” urged the Committee to move on to recommendations. . ”
Meningococcal disease progresses rapidly and is fatal in 10% to 15% of cases, even with appropriate antibiotics. Additionally, 20% of people who survive the disease endure long-term sequelae such as cognitive impairment, hearing loss, and limb amputation.
According to the ACIP Working Group, there have been nine outbreaks of meningococcal serogroup B since 2022.
ACIP also voted unanimously Thursday to include revised meningococcal vaccine recommendations in the pediatric vaccine program, which would make coverage free for uninsured and underinsured children.
Contraindications to meningococcal vaccines are severe allergies to previous doses or components of the vaccine, and precautions include pregnancy and moderate or severe acute illness.
The committee plans to review and vote on the adolescent meningococcal vaccine schedule sometime in 2025.
As always, all ACIP recommendations are not considered final until published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Shannon Firth has been reporting on health policy since 2014 as MedPage Today’s Washington correspondent. She is also a member of the site’s enterprise and investigative reporting teams. to follow
