University fresher campaign doubles meningitis vaccination rate, UK study finds

A campaign asking freshers arriving at university whether they had been vaccinated against meningitis and offering free vaccination to unvaccinated students more than doubled meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY) vaccine coverage, a UK study has found.1

Cases of group W invasive meningococcal disease have increased steadily in England since 2009 owing to the rapid expansion of a hypervirulent strain (Men W ST-11 cc) that is associated with more severe meningitis than group B disease.

In response, Public Health England introduced a vaccination campaign in 2015 …