The everchanging epidemiology of meningococcal disease worldwide and the potential for prevention through vaccination.

Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis and septicaemia worldwide and is associated with high case fatality rates and serious life-long complications among survivors. Twelve serogroups are recognised, of which six (A, B, C, W, X and Y) are responsible for nearly all cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The incidence of IMD and responsible serogroups vary widely both geographically and over time. For the first time, effective vaccines against all these serogroups are available or nearing licensure. Over the past two decades, IMD incidence has been declining across most parts of the world through a combination of successful meningococcal immunisation programmes and secular trends. The introduction of meningococcal C conjugate vaccines in the early 2000s was associated with rapid declines in meningococcal C disease, whilst implementation of a meningococcal A conjugate vaccine across the African meningitis belt led to near-elimination of meningococcal A disease. Consequently, other serogroups have become more important causes of IMD. In particular, the emergence of a hypervirulent meningococcal group W clone has led many countries to shift from monovalent meningococcal C to quadrivalent ACWY conjugate vaccines in their national immunisation programmes. Additionally, the recent licensure of two protein-based, broad-spectrum meningococcal B vaccines finally provides protection against the most common group responsible for childhood IMD across Europe and Australia. This review describes global IMD epidemiology across each continent and trends over time, the serogroups responsible for IMD, the impact of meningococcal immunisation programmes and future needs to eliminate this devastating disease

Impact of meningococcal C conjugate vaccination programs with and without catch-up campaigns in adolescents: Lessons learned from Bahia, Brazil

The significant increase in the incidence rates and ongoing outbreaks of serogroup C meningococcal (MenC) disease, associated with the sequence type-103 complex, motivated the incorporation of the meningococcal C conjugate (MCC) vaccine in the routine immunization program in the State of Bahia, Brazil in early 2010, targeting children younger than 5 years of age. In its capital, Salvador, the program also included a catch-up campaign for individuals 10–24 years of age. We performed an observational, ecological study, analyzing data collected from 2007 to 2015, to compare the impact of these two immunization strategies on meningococcal disease incidence and mortality rates. In Salvador, following the vaccination program, a dramatic early impact on MenC disease and mortality rates could be observed, with significant reductions in incidence rates of MenC disease in all age groups, including individuals that were too old to have been vaccinated, indicating the presence of herd protection. Compared to the pre-vaccine period, a virtual disappearance of MenC disease was observed in 2015. However, in the state of Bahia (excluding the city of Salvador), no herd protection could be observed, with significant impact only among vaccine-eligible children within 5 years of introduction of the MCC vaccination program. These results highlight the importance of catch-up campaigns, including adolescents and young adults, to induce herd protection compared to immunization strategies restricted to infants and young children. This information is crucial for identifying optimal immunization policies and future strategies, focused on adolescents, to optimize the impact of MCC vaccination programs

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data