Greenwood B M, Hassan-King M, Whittle H C
Br Med J. 1978 May 20;1(6123):1317-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6123.1317.
Household contacts of patients with group A meningococcal infection were vaccinated with either meningococcal vaccine or tetanus toxoid. Five of the 523 subjects who received tetanus toxoid developed meningococcal meningitis and another four probably had meningococcal disease. Only one possible case of meningococcal infection occurred among 520 contacts vaccinated with meningococcal vaccine. Vaccination had no effect on nasopharyngeal carriage of meningococci. Vaccination of household contacts of patients with group A meningococcal infections is an effective way of using limited supplies of meningococcal vaccine, though its value would be limited in an epidemic. Secondary cases of meningococcal infection often occur within a few days of the index case, and, although vaccine alone seemed to provide adequate prophylaxis in these Nigerian subjects, additional chemoprophylaxis may be needed to cover this critical period.
A群脑膜炎球菌感染患者的家庭接触者接种了脑膜炎球菌疫苗或破伤风类毒素。在523名接种破伤风类毒素的受试者中，有5人发生了脑膜炎球菌性脑膜炎，另有4人可能患有脑膜炎球菌病。在520名接种脑膜炎球菌疫苗的接触者中，仅出现了1例可能的脑膜炎球菌感染病例。接种疫苗对脑膜炎球菌的鼻咽部携带情况没有影响。对A群脑膜炎球菌感染患者的家庭接触者进行疫苗接种是有效利用有限的脑膜炎球菌疫苗供应的一种方式，尽管其在疫情中的价值有限。脑膜炎球菌感染的二代病例通常在首例病例出现后的几天内发生，虽然仅疫苗似乎就为这些尼日利亚受试者提供了足够的预防措施，但可能需要额外的化学预防来覆盖这一关键时期。
