Immunization Coverage for Meningococcal Infection

Running head: IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE

IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE
Meningococcal infection:
Meningococcal meningitis is a rare but serious bacterial infection caused by Neisseria
meningitis that causes the membrane that covered the brain and spinal cord become inflamed.
Each year approximately, 1000 people in Australia and infected with the meningococcal that
include meningitis and septicaemia (Oliver and Mbaeyi 2018). The prevalence of the disease is
recently observed in Tasmania because of a frequent case of meningococcal infection amongst
aboriginal pollution in the middle of 2018 which is still running spreading in that area. Because
of the contagious natures, the transmission of the infection is very rapid which will further affect
several lives (Fisher et al. 2018). Therefore, free meningococcal vaccination is required to
promote reducing the infectious effect of the meningococcal.
The prevalence in Tasmania:
A study by Lawrence et al. (2016), the health department of Australia suggested that 10
% of the indigenous individuals in Tasmania are carrying Neisseria meningitis in their nose and
throat. Up to 20% of cases are observed where this infection can result from lifelong disabilities
such as gangrene and loss limb. Out of 20% of the cases, 5 to 10% of the cases are fatal.
Another study by Marshall et al. (2016), suggested that 3.5 cases per 10000 were developed a
meningococcal infection in 2002 that decreased to 2.1 cases per 10000 in 2007. However, the
prevalence of it increased in 2005 and gradually increases in recent years in the indigenous area
due to lack of health care facilities and adequate information to reduce risk factor (Martinez
2018). The Australia childhood immunization registry shows Tasmania's immunization rate for
children aged 12 to 15 is just below 93% that indicated that majority of the children are deprived
of protection from the immunity (Leeds et al. 2018). The immunization coverage rates for the

IMMUNIZATION COVERAGE
individuals between 24 to 27 months decreased to 89% (Martinez, 2018). The primary health of
Tasmania estimated that vaccination rates may vary from 67% to 88% in some of the
community. Therefore, the vaccination is required to spread the herd immunity (Korzeniewski et
al. 2015). In September 2018 the national coverage rates were 94.02% for the teenagers.
The risk factor of the infection and symptoms:
A study by Rashid et al. (2015), suggested that older teenagers in between 15 years to 21
years are particularly at risk of carrying the bacteria and transmitting it to others. Besides, the
identified risk factors are exposure to the smoking, infectious individuals, kissing or nose and
throat discharge of individual carrying bacteria (Korzeniewski et al. 2015). . There are two main
types of infection such as meningitis and septicaemia caused by five different strain of it such as
A, B, C, W AD Y. In 2016, most of the cases in Tasmania were W strain and the state had the
highest infection in the country (Leeds et al. 2018). The identified symptoms are fever, nausea,
and confusion, severe throat infection, rashes in the skin (Gibney et al. 2016). In very severe
cases it becomes fatal and contributed to the morbidity rate of the country. However, it was also
observed that due to high health care expenditure and the high cost of meningococcal vaccines,
majority of the individuals refuse to seek help that in turn increase the severity of the disease .
Facilities available for the vaccinations:
Since meningococcal infection is a severe infection that not only fatal but also causes
permanent disabilities, the free vaccination for 15 to 21 year of individuals is crucial for the
aboriginal population to reduce the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous population. A,
C, Y, W vaccinations are available free of cost in community care of aboriginal region of