External Links

Please note EU-IBIS bears no responsibility for the contents of the external sites listed below.

Meningitis and related diseases
 
Vaccines protecting against meningitis
 
Guidelines on the treatment of meningitis/meningoccocal disease
     -   English versions
     -   Other language versions
 
Websites of institutes pariticipating in the EU-IBIS project

Meningitis and related diseases

A number of bacterial and viral organisms cause meningitis, amongst them the bacterial species Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and enteroviruses, adenovirus and herpes simplex. EU-IBIS is concerned with two bacterial species, Neiseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae.

Health Protection Agency
Meningitis Research Foundation
Meningitis Trust
NHS Direct
US National Center for Infectious Diseases
World Health Organisation   Haemophilus influenzae type b   Meningococcal meningitis
Neisseria.org   Neisseria meningtidis
US Centres for Diease Control and Prevention (technical information)   Haemophilus influenzae   Neisseria meningitidis
Sanger Institute (sequencing projects)   Haemophilus influenzae   Neisseria meningitidis
Wellcome Trust funded Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST)   Haemophilus influenzae   Neisseria
Wikipedia   Haemophilus influenzae   Neisseria meningitidis

Vaccines protecting against meningitis

Both Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis occur in a variety of types, but only one type of the first (serotype b) and five of the second (serogroups A, B, C, W135, Y) cause significant diease in humans. A number of vaccines have been developed to protect against bacterial meningitis, each vaccine protecting only against a specific subset of bacterial strains, and none offering cross-species protection. The vaccines come in two forms: polysaccharide vaccines which consist of chains of sugar molecules derived from the surface of the corresponding organism, and conjugate vaccines, in which the same sugar molecules are chemically linked to a puriified protein, this generating a greater immunological and therefore protective response, particularly in younger children. The polysaccharide Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcal) polysaccharide vaccines are either bivalent (protecting against serogroups A and C) or tetravalent/quadrivalent (protecting against serogroups A, C, W135 and Y). The only meningococcal conjugate vaccine, MenC, protects against sergoroup C. The only Haemopnilus influenzae vaccine, Hib, is a conjugate vaccine protecting against serotype b.

World Health Organisation   Hib vaccine   Meningococcal vaccines
British National Formulary   Hib vaccine   Meningococcal vaccines
US Immunization Action Coalition   Hib vaccine   Meningococcal vaccines
Meningitis Vaccine Project (in sub-Saharan Africa)
Euromed 2003 (Keith Cartwright)   Meningococcal vaccines [pdf link]

Guidelines on the management of meningitis/meningococcal disease

Guidelines in English
General meningitis
  Infectious Diseases Society of America (2004)
  Médicins Sans Frontières (2005) [pdf link, 4.28MB, pp159ff]
Childhood meningitis
  World Health Organisation Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (2000)
  Melbourne Royal Children's Hospital (2005)
Adult meningiitis
  British Infection Society (2005)
General meningococcal disease
  Health Protection Agency/Communicable Disease and Public Health (2002)
  Australian Department of Health and Ageing (2004)
  Canadian Public Health Agency (2005)
Management of meningococcal epidemics
  World Health Organisation (1998)
  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinical guidelines (2004) [pdf link, 2.45MB]
Meningococcal disease in institutes of higher education
  Universities UK Student Experience Strategy Group (2004)
  US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (2000)
Use of antibiotics
  Effectiveness of antibiotics in preventing meningococcal disease (2004)
  Antibiotic guidelines and use in the Netherlands (2002)

Guidelines in French
General meningitis
  Médicins Sans Frontières (2005) [pdf link, 4.28MB, pp159ff]
General meningococcal disease
  Canadian Public Health Agency (2005)
Management of meningococcal epidemics
  World Health Organisation (1998)
  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinical guidelines (2004) [pdf link, 2.45MB]

Guidelines in other languages
Finland   Finnish version   Swedish version
Germany   German Standing Commission on Vaccination (STIKO)   Instructions for public health officials
Netherlands   Health guidance

Websites of institutes participating in the EU-IBIS project

Austria	Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit (AGES)	www.ages.at/servlet/sls/Tornado/spr/ages/Home
Austria	Bundesministerium für Gesundheit und Frauen	www.bmgf.gv.at
Belgium	Institut Jules Bordet	www.bordet.be/page2_en/index_en.htm
Belgium	Scientific Institute of Public Health	www.iph.fgov.be
Czech Republic	National Institute of Public Health	www.szu.cz/english.htm
Denmark	Statens Serum Institute	www.ssi.dk/sw379.asp
England and Wales	Health Protection Agency	www.hpa.org.uk
Estonia	Health Protectorate Inspectorate	www.tervisekaitse.ee/tkuus.php
Finland	National Public Health Institute	www.ktl.fi/portal/english
France	Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse	http://www.chu-toulouse.fr
France	Institut de Veille Sanitaire	www.invs.sante.fr
France	Institut Pasteur	www.pasteur.fr/externe
Germany	Nationales Referenzzentrum für Meningokokken	www.meningococcus.de
Germany	Robert Koch Institute	www.rki.de
Germany	Zentrum Präventive Pädiatrie	www.stiftung-praeventive-paediatrie.de/zentrum.html
Greece	National School of Public Health	http://www.nsph.gr/esdy_basic2/index.htm
Hungary	Johan Bela Centre for National Epidemiology	www.oek.hu/oek.web?lang=eng
Iceland	Centre for Infectious Disease Control	www.landlaeknir.is/template1.asp?PageID=1
Iceland	Landspitali University Hospital	www4.landspitali.is/lsh_ytri.nsf/htmlpages/index.html
Ireland	Children's University Hospital	www.childrenshospital.ie/
Ireland	National Disease Surveillance Centre	www.ndsc.ie
Italy	Istituto Superiore de Sanità	www.iss.it/
Latvia	State Agency Public Health Agency	www.sva.lv/eng
Luxembourg	Direction de la Santé	www.ms.etat.lu/DIR_SANT/Index.htm
Luxembourg	Laboratoire National de Santé	www.crp-sante.lu/en/Home.shtml
Malta	Disease Surveillance Unit	www.health.gov.mt/dsu
Netherlands	Academic Medical Centre	www.amc.nl
Netherlands	National Institute of Public Health and Environment (RIVM)	www.rivm.nl
Norway	Norweigan Institute of Public Health	www.fhi.no/eway/default0.asp?e=0&pid=225
Poland	National Institute of Hygiene	www.pzh.gov.pl/aindex.html
Poland	National Institute of Public Health	www.il.waw.pl
Portugal	Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr Ricardo Jorge	www.insarj.pt/site/insa_home_00.asp
Scotland	Health Protection Scotland	www.hps.scot.nhs.uk
Scotland	Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH)	www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh
Slovak Republic	Public Health Authority of the Slovac Republic	www.uvzsr.sk
Slovenia	Institute of Public Health Slovenia	www.ivz.si/ivz
Spain	Instituto de Salud Carlos III	www.isciii.es/
Sweden	Swedish Institute for Disease Control (SMI)	www.smittskyddsinstitutet.se/default____2166.aspx
Switzerland	Centre National des Méningocoques	www.meningo.ch/EN/index.php
Switzerland	Swiss Federal Office of Public Health	www.bag.admin.ch