Last Updated: 2002-12-05 14:38:42 -0400 (Reuters Health)

PARIS (Reuters Health) - France has recorded an increase of almost one third in cases of some types of invasive meningococcal disease for the year 2002 to date.

Meningitis is a potentially fatal infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The French Health Watch Institute (InVS) announced on Wednesday a 32% increase in cases of meningitis C infection since last year.

The rate of the infection rose from 0.14 per 100,000 people to 0.35 per 100,000 between 1996 and 2001, a return to pre-1990 levels, said Isabelle Bonmarin of the InVS.

"So far this year, the rate is now 0.47 per 100,000, which represents a 32% increase on the same period in 2001," she explained. "Type C, which represents 43% of all cases in 2002 according to provisional data, is on the increase while Type B is on the decline."

Bonmarin said the InVS would issue a meningitis alert where there were 2 cases per 100,000 among inhabitants in areas where five cases had been recorded over the previous 12 months. The alert procedure would allow time for figures provided by regional health authorities to be double-checked, taking into account people who had recently traveled, for example.

One problem, she explained, was that such cases may be recorded in the patient's hometown rather than where the disease was actually contracted.

Bonmarin told Reuters Health that access to vaccinations would not be restricted to any threshold, although she admitted this position could change.

France regularly organises vaccination programmes in response to outbreaks of meningitis C in particular areas and often at the start of the new school year, targeting those heading off to college.

A 3-month pilot meningitis C vaccination campaign was launched in October 21 in the Landes, Pyrenees-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrenees regions among 300,000 people aged between 2 months and 25 years.

Bonmarin said information had been more readily available during a similar programme in the Puy-de-Dome in January because the targeted population was smaller.

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