- Title
- Invasive meningococcal disease in elderly people, New South Wales, Australia, 1993 to 2012
- Creator
- Gunaratnam, Praveena; Massey, Peter; Durrheim, David; Torvaldsen, Siranda
- Relation
- Western Pacific Surveillance and Response Journal Vol. 4, Issue 4, p. 4-10
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.5365/WPSAR.2013.4.4.001
- Publisher
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- Little information is available publicly on invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in elderly people in Australia. This study analysed IMD notifications data from New South Wales between 1993 and 2012 to determine the distribution of IMD among people aged 65 years and older and to describe the characteristics of IMD in this age group compared to younger age groups with respect to notification trends, serogroup distribution and mortality rates. Following introduction of a childhood vaccination programme against meningococcal type C in 2003, notification rates in all age groups decreased, but the proportion of IMD notifications in people aged 65 years and over rose significantly (from 4% to 6%, P=0.01). Mortality rates from IMD in those aged 65 years and older were significantly higher than overall rates (32% compared to 5%, P<0.01). Serogroup Y accounted for 23% of infections in the elderly compared to 3% in people aged under 65 years (P<0.01). As the population ages, the elderly may account for a higher number of IMD cases in Australia. Protocols at the state and national level should be updated to provide guidance on the clinical and public health management of elderly people with IMD.
- Subject
- invasive meningococcal disease; elderly people; Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340755
- Identifier
- uon:28565
- Identifier
- ISSN:2094-7313
- Rights
- © 2013 Gunaratnam P, Massey P, Durrheim D, Torvaldsen S; licensee the World Health Organization. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution IGO License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/legalcode), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that WHO or this article endorse any specific organization, products or services. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. This notice should be preserved along with the article's original URL.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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