侵袭性脑膜炎球菌病：2024年年度流行病学报告

Invasive meningococcal disease Annual Epidemiological Report for 2024 Key facts •In 2024, 2 233 confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), including 202 deaths, werereported in 30 European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries.•France, Germany and Spain accounted for 58% of all confirmed IMD cases in 2024.•The notification rate of IMD rose from 0.4 in 2023 to 0.5 cases per 100 000 population in 2024, whichis the highest for the last five years. Age-specific notification rates were highest in infants under oneyear, followed by 1–4-year-olds and 15–24-year-olds.•Serogroup B remains the major cause of IMD. It accounted for 56% of cases with known serogroupand was the dominant serogroup in all age groups under 65 years.•Serogroup Y was the second most reported overall (21% of cases with known serogroup) and the mostreported in those aged 65 years and above.•Serogroup W was the third most reported overall (15% of cases with known serogroup).•It is essential to continue strengthening surveillance of IMD and regularly evaluating the impact ofimmunisation programmes to support decision-makers in implementing or adapting vaccinationstrategies to protect people across their entire lifespan. Introduction Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a serious bacterial infection caused by the Gram-negative diplococcusNeisseria meningitidis. The bacterium is often detected in the nasopharynx without causing disease, described asasymptomatic carriage. It occasionally invades the body and causes meningococcal infection. IMD is a major causeof meningitis (occurring in 37–49% of cases) and septicaemia (18–33%) [1]. It is a concern for public healthbecause of its severe morbidity and relatively high case fatality rate (8–15%). In the EU/EEA, vaccines areavailable for primary prevention of disease caused by serogroups A, B, C, W and Y. Antibiotics are administered forelimination of carriage and treatment of the disease. Methods This report is based on data for 2024 retrieved from EpiPulse Cases on 7 April 2026. EpiPulse Cases is a system forthe collection, analysis and dissemination of data on communicable diseases; it replaced The European SurveillanceSystem (TESSy) in October 2024. For a detailed description of the methods used to produce this report, please refer to the Methods chapter in the‘Introduction to the Annual Epidemiological Report’ [2].An overview of the national surveillance systems isavailable online [3]. Additional and downloadable data on this disease are accessible from ECDC’s onlineSurveillance Atlas of Infectious Diseases [4]. Thirty EU/EEA countries reported data on IMD to ECDC for 2024. Most countries used the EU case definition forconfirmed cases [5] or a comparable case definition [3]. Most countries reported data from comprehensive, passive surveillance systems with national coverage. Belgiumreported data from a sentinel surveillance system. Bulgaria reported aggregate data in 2024. Epidemiology In 2024, 30 EU/EEA countries reported 2 233 confirmed cases of IMD (Table 1). This is the highest since 2020.Three countries (France, Germany and Spain) accounted for 58% of all confirmed cases. Estonia and Liechtensteinreported zero cases. The overall notification rate was 0.5 cases per 100 000 population, which was equal to the notification ratesobserved in 2019 (0.5 cases per 100 000 population). The notification rate by country ranged from≤0.1 cases(Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland and Liechtenstein) to 1.2 cases per 100 000 population (Ireland) (Table 1, Figure 1).France and Slovakia reported the second highest notification rate (0.9 cases per 100 000 population ) followed byCroatia, Cyprus, and the Netherlands, each reporting 0.8 cases per 100 000 population. Nearly all reportingcountries experienced an increased or a stabilisation of their notification rate in 2024 compared with 2023, and arenow back to their pre-pandemic rate. Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania experienced a decrease in thenotification rate in 2024 compared to 2023. Age and gender In 2024, the notification rate for IMD was highest among young children, with 6.3 confirmed cases per 100 000population in infants under one year and 1.38 confirmed cases per 100 000 population in 1–4-year-olds (Figure 2).The notification rate in the age group 15–24 years (0.83 per 100 000 population) was the third highest, followedby adults aged 65 years and above (0.53 per 100 000 population) and those aged 5–14 years (0.38 per 100 000population). Notification rates in men were higher than, or equivalent to those in women in all age groups except older adults(50–64 years and 65 years and above), where notification rates in women were slightly higher than in men.Compared with other age groups, the notification rate was significantly higher in male infants (under one year)than female infants (male: 7.6 confirmed cases per 100 000 population; female: 4.9 per 100 000 population). Theoverall male-to-female ratio of cases was 0.9