FDA approves meningitis #vaccine for 9-month-old infants

The meningitis vaccine, Menactra, has just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for children as young as 9 months old, whereas previously it was only approved for 2 to 55-year-olds.

Infants younger than 1 year old are most susceptible to the disease, though adults aged 18-23 also have higher-than-average infection rates (college students in dorms have an increased risk of contracting the contagious disease). But the meningitis vaccine isn’t on the list of vaccines generally recommended for young children but rather for those aged 11 to 18.

And just because a vaccine is approved in infants doesn’t mean the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will recommend that it join an immunization list that already includes vaccines against the chicken pox, measles and the flu. But perhaps that’s because the recommendations sometimes take a few years to catch up with new vaccines. Read the complete article

To date, most vaccines aren’t administered until the child is at least 2 months old, as their immune systems aren’t developed enough. However this may be about to change, according to Lance Gordon, president and CEO of the biotechnology company ImmunoBiologics Corp., speaking from the recent World Vaccine Congress Washington 2011. Find out more