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Previous Volume 349:2353-2356 December 11, 2003 Number 24 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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On December 11, 2002, a 12-year-old girl from suburban Philadelphia died as a result of serogroup C meningococcal infection. Death occurred within hours after the initial manifestation of the illness. Her parents learned subsequently that a vaccine was available that might have prevented their daughter's death. They asked, "Why didn't we know about this vaccine?"

An estimated 2200 to 3000 cases of invasive meningococcal infection occur every year in the United States.¹ The incidence of meningococcal infections is low as compared with that of other infections, but meningococcal infection is characterized by a rapid onset, a case fatality rate of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Meningococcus: The Disease, Its Epidemiology, and Its Prevention

Factors Guiding Public Health Policy

Factors Guiding Individual Choices

Public Health Decisions and the Availability of Information

Conclusions

Source Information

From the Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine — both in Philadelphia (P.A.O.); and the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Rhode Island Hospital, and the Department of Pediatrics, Brown Medical School — both in Providence (G.P.).

Related Letters:

Choices about Meningococcal Vaccination
Way A. B., Offit P. A., Peter G.
Extract | Full Text | PDF  
N Engl J Med 2004; 350:1156, Mar 11, 2004. Correspondence

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