• Julie A Bettinger, Shelley L Deeks, Scott A Halperin, Raymond Tsang, and David W Scheifele.
• Vaccine Evaluation Center, BC Children's Hospital and the University of British Columbia, A5-950 West 28th Street, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4H4, Canada. jbettinger@cfri.ca
• Expert Rev Vaccines. 2013 May 1;12(5):505-17.

AbstractWith publically funded meningococcal immunization programs established in infants, children and adolescents, Canada is at the forefront of invasive meningococcal disease prevention. The advent of two new serogroup B vaccines that may protect against multiple disease-causing strains offers the potential to reduce endemic disease to very low levels in Canada. Canada likely will be one of the first countries with approval to use recombinant serogroup B vaccine. However, inclusion of these new vaccines into public immunization programs will be decided at the provincial/territorial level, rather than nationally, and may result initially in different immunization schedules throughout the country as we have seen with conjugate meningococcal vaccines. Such heterogeneous use and adoption of new vaccines complicates disease control, but may assist in evaluation of effectiveness. Minimally, it requires regionally specific information. In this article, the authors provide an overview of the Canadian epidemiology, serogroup B vaccine characteristics, potential strain coverage, immunization strategies and remaining postmarketing research questions.

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