Meningococcal Disease Treatments and Vaccines

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Meningococcal Disease Treatments and Vaccines

Meningococcal disease is a large concern in the medical field because it is unbiased towards the patients it infects. There has been limited success in trying to eliminate this disease. Antibiotics play a role in helping to treat patients with bacterial meningitis, and steroids have been tested to help reduce risk factors. Prevention has also become a key issue because meningitis can only be spread through direct contact with infected body fluid. The best prevention is to maintain clean hygiene. Vaccines are another way of preventing disease. However, there are multiple serogroups of meningitis that makes creating a universal vaccine extremely difficult. So far, there have only been two successful types of vaccines: polysaccharide and glycoconguate. However, scientists have begun to work with newer thoughts, such as making a protein vaccine or utilizing LPS on the bacteria. There may be a possibility that meningitis will be eradicated in the future.

Meningococcal disease has significantly impacted international health since its first isolation in 1887. Not only has it caused huge epidemics in less industrialized countries such as Asia and Africa, but has also killed off many infants in industrialized nations such as the United States of America (Pollard 1). Meningitis, one of the forms of meningococcal disease, is a painful inflammation of the lining of the central nervous system and usually attacks infants, freshman college students, and military soldiers. Because of the disease’s unbiased attacks on all humans, it is important to always maintain a prevention plan and possible treatments, which may include antibiotics or vaccines.

Prevention is always the best way if not contract...

... middle of paper ...

... bacterial

meningitis”. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.give/pubmed/18077808?dopt=Abstract

Pollard, Andrew J., Maiden, Martin C.J., eds. Meningococcal Vaccines: Methods and Protocols. New York: Humana Press, 2001.

Pollard, Andrew J., Maiden, Martin C.J., eds. Meningococcal Diseases: Methods and Protocols. New York: Humana Press, 2001.

Resaei, Nima. “Serum Bactericidal Antibody Responses to Meningococcal

Polysaccharide Vaccination as a Basis for Clinical Classification of Common

Variable Immunodeficiency” . http://cvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/4/607

Russell JE, Jolley KA, Feavers IM, Maiden MC, Suker J. “PorA variable regions of Neisseria meningitides.” http://www.ncbo.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15200858

Van de Beek, D., de Gans, J., McIntyre,P., Prasad, K. “Steroids in adults with acute

bacterial meningitis: a systematic review”

http://www.ncbi.nih.gov/pubmed/14998499

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