"The Meningitis Centre is striving to eliminate Meningitis in Australia by lobbying for vaccines and educating the community to be aware of the signs and symptoms. The Centre also provides support for families affected by the disease"
Meningitis Research
The changing epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease in Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Western Australians from 1997 to 2007 and emergence of nonvaccine serotypes
This research article by Principal Research Fellow Deborah Lehmann and colleagues reviewed 10 years of data on invasive pneumococcal disease in Western Australia.
Invasive pneumococcal disease is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae, more commonly known as the pneumococcus.
Meningitis is one form of invasive pneumococcal disease. Since the introduction of the conjugate pneumococcal vaccine (7vPCV) for Aboriginal children in 2001 and later for all other Australian children in 2005, the rates of invasive pneumococcal disease have significantly declined. There has also been a decline in the rates of disease seen in non-Aboriginal adults. However, the current pneumococcal vaccine only covers seven out of more than 90 different types of the pneumococcus bacteria. While there has been a decline in invasive pneumococcal disease caused by these seven types, the rates of invasive pneumococcal disease caused by the other 'non-vaccine' types are now rising.
This article was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases on 1 June 2010.
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Decline in meningitis admissions in young children: vaccines make a difference
This research article by PhD student Hannah Moore and Principal Research Fellow Deborah Lehmann looked at hospital admissions for children with meningitis all over Western Australia. This analysis of hospital records for children aged under 2 years in Western Australia found admission rates for meningitis dropped by more than 70 per cent between 1992 and 2000. It is thought that the introduction of the Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine to the childhood immunisation schedule in 1993 has caused this dramatic drop in the number of children hospitalised with meningitis.
This article was published in the 2nd October 2006 edition of The Medical Journal of Australia.
