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Infants, Māori and Pacific children, and children living in the most deprived areas are more at risk from meningococcal disease

Posted 8 months ago by Helene Marsters Less than a minute to read

Here are the key findings from our Meningococcal disease notifications in children (0–14 years) surveillance report.

  • The rate of meningococcal notifications increased slightly from 1.6 per 100,000 in 2020, to 2.6 per 100,000 notifications in 2021.
  • Meningococcal B continues to be the most dominant strain in children aged 0–14 years.
  • Infants (under 1-year-old) continue to have the highest rate of meningococcal disease since 2001. They had 58 times the rate of meningococcal disease as children aged 10–14 years.
  • Māori and Pacific children had three to four times the rate of meningococcal disease than European/Other children.
  • Children living in the most deprived areas (NZDep 2018 quintile 5) had five times the rate of meningococcal disease as children living in the least deprived areas (quintile 1).