Meningococcal disease includes meningococcal meningitis and meningococcemia. Meningococcal disease is a rare, but potentially fatal bacterial infection caused by a bacterium called Neisseria meningitidis. And it is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis in all age groups in the United States.⁶

About 1000-2600 people get meningococcal disease each year in the US.⁶ The estimated case-fatality rate for an invasive meningococcal infection is 10% to 14%. Approximately 11% to 19% of survivors of meningococcal disease have serious health sequelae including limb loss, hearing loss, and neurological disability. Although rates of disease are highest among children under 2 years of age, 62% of meningococcal disease in the US occurs among people ≥11 years of age.⁶

Other groups with an increased risk of getting meningococcal disease are adolescents and young adults 15-24 years of age, people with certain medical conditions, such as anatomic or functional asplenia, and college freshmen who live in dormitories.^7,8,9

Meningococcal infections can be treated with certain antibiotics such as penicillin. Still, about 1 out of every 10 people who get meningococcal disease dies from it, and many others are affected for life.²⁵ This is why preventing the disease through use of meningococcal vaccine is important for people at highest risk.⁶