Meningococcal a and Other Polysaccharide Vaccines

Five years ago, the Journal 1 published the results of a successful field trial with a Group A meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine conducted in children between three months and five years of age during an epidemic of meningococcal A disease in Finland. The Finnish study included 130,000 children who received meningococcal Group A vaccine; 49,000 who received Hemophilus influenzae Type b polysaccharide vaccine, which had been developed by Smith and co-workers2; and 32,000 unvaccinated controls. No cases of meningococcal A disease occurred during the first year after vaccination in the group that received Group A vaccine, whereas 6 and 13 cases . . .