Meningitis Spotlight Session 2022
In 2020, we launched our first ever series of virtual meningitis webinars, with great success. We are therefore delighted that on November 16th 2022 our virtual event returned via Zoom webinars, with a new name the ‘Meningitis spotlight session’. This virtual event is completely free, and we welcomed participants from all over the world to join us, pose questions to our eminent speakers and engage in a group discussion and Q&A session moderated by the session Chair.
This webinar has been approved by the Federation of the Royal College of Physicians UK for 3 external (category 1) CPD credit(s).
Although the live event has passed, the on-demand recording is available via the link below. If you had previously registered for the event, you will be sent directly to the recording. If you were not registered, but still wish to view the webinar recording, please complete the form for access.
Agenda
13:30-13.35 Welcome and introduction - Vinny Smith, MRF and CoMO
13.35-13.45 Patient experience of meningitis – Nicole Zographou
Session 1: Meningitis in the UK: what do we know now and what tools do we need? Chair – Prof Ray Borrow, UK Health Security Agency (UK HSA)
During COVID-19 lockdowns, the UK experienced a reduction in confirmed cases of bacterial meningitis. How has the situation changed since the lifting of UK restrictions in February 2022? What tools are available to help us defeat meningitis and how can we best use them?
- 13.45 - 14.00 Invasive meningococcal disease in England after the cessation of COVID control measures - Dr Helen Campbell, UK Health Security Agency (UK-HSA)
- 14.00 - 14.15 Decoding outbreaks using genomics: real world examples - Dr Jay Lucidarme, UK-HSA
- 14.15 - 14.30 4CMenB for teenagers – a meningitis vaccine that prevents gonorrhoea or a gonorrhoea vaccine that prevents meningitis? – Dr Hannah Christensen, University of Bristol
- 14.30 - 14.45 Recommended changes to UK immunisation schedule: results from modelling studies - Lauren Adams, University of Cambridge
- 14.45 - 15.00 Pneumococcal meningitis in the UK in the post COVID era - Dr Shamez Ladhani, UK-HSA
- 15.00 - 15.15 Q&A and discussion
15.15-15.25 - BREAK
Session 2: Why is the global prevention of bacterial meningitis a priority and what progress has been made? Chair – Prof Caroline Trotter, University of Cambridge
The WHO Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030 sets out a comprehensive vision ‘Towards a world free of meningitis,’ with the prevention and epidemic control of meningitis being a key strategic pillar. Recommended vaccination programmes against some causes of bacterial meningitis have not yet been introduced in many countries, leaving their citizens at risk. Where vaccines are available, global vaccination rates have continued to decline, with 25 million children missing out on lifesaving vaccines in 2021, 6 million more than in 2019. Meanwhile other important causes of meningitis, such as GBS, are not yet vaccine preventable. There are also important gaps in our knowledge of the burden of meningitis. How should available vaccines best be used to achieve high coverage, and how will vaccines still under development be progressed to their licensure and introduction?
- 15.25 - 15.40 Uncovering the hidden burden of meningitis mortality in the under 5’s - Dr Sana Mahtab, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- 15.40 - 16.00 Global strategies for prevention of pneumococcal meningitis - Prof Kim Mulholland, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London
- 16.00 - 16.20 The potential for broadening protection with MenB and multicomponent meningococcal vaccines – Dr Giorgia Sulis, McGill University, Canada
- 16.20 - 16.35 Overcoming barriers to maternal GBS vaccination - Prof Kirsty Le Doare, St George’s University of London
- 16.35 - 16.45 Development of a HiA vaccine – Dr Andrew Cox, National Research Council Canada
- 16.45-17.00 Q&A and discussion
- 17.00 - Session close