ATLANTA — Supply problems with the tetravalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine have been resolved, and routine vaccination of 11- to 12-year-olds should be resumed.
That recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was discussed at the committee's fall meeting and published the following week (MMWR 2006;55:1177).
The supply problem was announced in May of 2006, with Sanofi Pasteur's estimation that demand for Menactra would outpace the supply at least through the summer.
At that time, the CDC, in consultation with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College Health Association, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine, recommended deferral of routine use of the vaccine in 11- to 12-year-olds (MMWR 2006;55:567–8).
Vaccination with MCV4 was to continue in other high-risk groups, including adolescents at high school entry who have not previously received the meningococcal conjugate vaccine, college freshmen living in dormitories, and other individuals—such as military recruits, travelers to endemic areas, microbiologists routinely exposed to Neisseria meningitidis, and certain immunocompromised individuals—who are at high risk for meningococcal disease.
More than 6 million doses of Menactra had been distributed by the end of September, according to the CDC.
Now, an additional 3.5–4.5 million doses are projected to be distributed through March of 2007, enough to allow a return to routine immunization of 11- to 12-year-olds and continuation in all the other recommended groups, said Dr. Gregory S. Wallace, chief of the CDC's Vaccine Supply and Assurance Branch.