The doctor warned about the most vulnerable category of people with meningococcal disease

Children in the first year of life are the most vulnerable group in the incidence of meningococcal infection. This was announced on September 3 by Irina Izvekova, Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Novosibirsk State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

"At the same time, it can be very difficult to recognize an infection in the most important first hours," she said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

According to the expert, the incidence rate among infants is almost 40 times higher than the long-term average among adults. Izvekova also said that the child from Novosibirsk developed the disease for less than a day, and death occurred four hours after hospitalization.

In June, Veronika Skvortsova, head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia, announced that Russia's first five-valent vaccine against meningococcal infection would enter the market this year. She clarified that there are no analogues in the world. The vaccine contains serotype B, which causes severe septic forms of the disease. By the end of 2025, the incidence rate of generalized forms of meningococcal infection reached 2.5 times.