Epidemiology of Meningococcal Disease, New York City, 1989–2000

摘要

Study of the epidemiologic trends in meningococcal dis-ease is important in understanding infection dynamics anddeveloping timely and appropriate public health interventions.We studied surveillance data from the New York CityDepartment of Health and Mental Hygiene, which showed thatduring 1989–2000 a decrease occurred in both the proportion ofpatients with serogroup B infection (from 28% to 13% of report-ed cases; p<0.01) and the rate of serogroup B infection (from0.25/100,000 to 0.08/100,000; p<0.01). We also noted anincreased proportion (from 3% to 39%; p<0.01) and rate ofserogroup Y infection (from 0.02/100,000 to 0.23/100,000;p<0.01). Median patient age increased (from 15 to 30 years;p<0.01). The case-fatality rate for the period was 17%. As moreeffective meningococcal vaccines become available, recom-mendations for their use in nonepidemic settings should consid-er current epidemiologic trends, particularly changes in age andserogroup distribution of meningococcal infections