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56-HTL: Incidence rate for invasive meningococcal disease

Definition
Rationale and notes for interpretation
Technical specifications
Data availability
Considerations for indicator quality and comparability
Responsibility to produce the data

Definition

The rate of new cases of invasive meningococcal disease reported by year, age and serogroup.

A confirmed case is defined as invasive disease with laboratory confirmation of infection: isolation of Neisseria meningitidis from a normally sterile site (blood, cerebrospinal fluid, joint, pleural or pericardial fluid) or demonstration of N. meningitidis antigen in cerebrospinal fluid.

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Rationale and notes for interpretation

A new generation of very effective protein conjugate vaccines is now available against Group C disease which can be given to infants as young as two months of age. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends three doses of this vaccine at two, four and six months of age for routine immunization. Other meningococcal conjugate vaccines, which are anticipated to confer long-term immunity against multiple serogroups, are under development. Epidemiological data on invasive meningococcal disease will enable evidence-based program planning and evaluation. There is a high level of public interest in this disease, as well as strong potential for significant reduction in incidence over time. Most cases of this disease occur in the 0-19 age group, and immunization programs generally focus on this group.

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Technical specifications

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Data availability

• Report results as a rate per 100,000 population per year, by serogroup (group C; all other serogroups).
• Data is available from 1990 to 2002. (2002 data is provisional).

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Considerations for indicator quality and comparability

Some data produced for the September 2002 Comparable Health Indicators Reports may have changed due to updated provincial and territorial numbers therefore, data tables provided for the November 2004 Comparable Health Indicators Reports, replaces all previous data tables.

Minor variations in data will occur when comparing data with other federal and provincial/territorial publications because of reporting delays, different cut-off dates and date of access to Statistics Canada's population estimates.

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Responsibility to produce the data

Health Canada