Menveo, the meningococcal vaccine manufacture by Novartis, was licensed for use in 11-55 year olds on Monday February 19th, 2010. In head to head clinical trials Menveo has proven to produce a higher immune response than the other currently available vaccine.

This is great news to us here at the Children's Clinic for many reasons! We have been involved in 3 on-going clinical trials to help get this very vaccine approved for infants 2 months of age and up. This is the exact same vaccine we have been giving in these trials for the past year to over 60 infants. This is the first big step in getting this vaccine approved for infants. Novartis plans on submitting data for approval for 2-10 years of age this year and for the infants in early 2011.

Meningococcal disease causes approximately 50,000 deaths globally each year, many of which could have been prevented through vaccines, and unfortunately infants are at the highest risk for this disease. Currently there is no approved vaccine on the market to prevent meningococcal disease in infants. As many as 1 in 7 patients who contract meningococcal disease die from it and around 1 in 5 suffer serious, permanent, and devastating side effects, including limb amputation, seizures, hearing loss and learning disabilities. Even with early appropriate treatment this disease progresses rapidly and is potentially fatal often within 24-28 hours of the onset of symptoms.

We are very excited to have the opportunity to vaccinate our babies here in the panhandle before anyone else in the world! If you would like more information about your infant participating in this study please contact the office!