The COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of social distancing measures and lockdown have had a significant effect on the spread and detection of other infections including invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), a new report from PHE suggest.
The report presents data on laboratory-confirmed IMD from the beginning of July 2019 to the end of June 2020. It shows that in England, the national PHE Meningococcal Reference Unit confirmed 461 cases of IMD during 2019-2020, 12 per cent lower than the 526 cases reported in 2018 to 2019.
Incidence in infants decreased from 16 per 100,000 population in 2017-2018 to 9 per 100,000 in 2018-2019 (55 cases) and increased slightly to 10 per 100,000 in 2019-2020 (63 cases). Incidence in children aged one to four years continued to decrease from three per 100,000 in 2018-2019 to two per 100,000 (42 cases) in 2019-2020.
Young adults aged between 15 and 24 years accounted for 17 per cent (n=77; one per 100,000) of all laboratory-confirmed IMD in 2019-2020 and those aged 25 years or older comprised 47 per cent of cases (n=216; one per 100,000).
Between April and June 2020, 29 individuals were confirmed with IMD, 76 per cent lower than in the same period in the previous year (121 cases).
In England, there has been an overall decline in confirmed IMD cases over the last two decades from a peak of 2595 cases in 1999-2000. The initial decline in IMD cases was driven by the introduction of the MenC vaccine in 1999 which reduced MenC cases by approximately 96 per cent, to around 30 to 40 cases each year.
The overall incidence of total IMD has continued to decrease over the past decade from two per 100,000 in 2006-2007 to one per 100,000 since 2011-2012. PHE says this latter decline was mainly due to secular changes in MenB cases. Overall IMD incidence in 2019-2020 has remained stable at 1 per 100,000.
