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Meningococcal disease notifications reached a new low in 2020

Posted 2 years ago by Helene Marsters Less than a minute to read

Asthma, LRTI and meningococcal topic

Here are some of the key facts from our latest factsheet on Meningococcal disease notifications in children aged 0-4 years.

  • The number of meningococcal notifications dropped from 67 in 2019, to 16 in 2020.
  • Meningococcal Group B continues to be the most dominant strain in children.
  • Infants (under 1-year-old) continue to have the highest rate of meningococcal disease since 2001. They had 35 times the rate of meningococcal disease as children aged 10–14 years in 2018–20.
  • Pacific and Māori children had three to five times the rate of meningococcal disease than European/Other children.
  • Children living in the most deprived areas (NZDep 2018 quintile 5) had more than seven times the rate of meningococcal disease as children living in the least deprived areas (quintile 1).

Find out more here.