“It was time” to expand compulsory vaccination for babies, comments the president of the National Professional Council of Pediatrics

“It was time” to expand compulsory vaccination against meningitis for babies, exclaimed on franceinfo this Friday Professor Robert Cohen, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Créteil Hospital and president of the National Professional Council of Pediatrics. Vaccination against meningitis, currently compulsory in infants only for one family of bacteria, will be expanded from the beginning of 2025 in the face of an increase in serious cases.

According to Professor Cohen, since the end of Covid-19, cases of meningitis have exploded to the point of reaching figures “never seen in years”, with 560 cases recorded last year in France. The pediatric infectious disease specialist would like to point out that meningitis is fatal for 10% of children, and can leave serious after-effects in a third of children who contract it.