Welcome to the Vaccines and Immunizations website.
Skip directly to the search box, site navigation, or content.

Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


Vaccines & Immunizations

Vaccines and Preventable Diseases:

Meningococcal Vaccination
Pronounced (muh-nin-jo-cok-ul)

Meningococcal vaccines protect against most types of meningococcal disease, although they do not prevent all cases. There are two kinds of vaccines that protect against Neisseria meningitidis available in the United States: meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine (Menomune®), and meningococcal conjugate vaccine (Menactra® and Menveo®).

Meningococcal vaccination

What You Should Know

About the Disease

top of page

Vaccine Information

The meningococcal disease can be prevented by the following vaccines: MCV4 and MPSV4.

top of page

Vaccine Safety

As with all vaccines, there can be minor reactions, including pain and redness at the injection site, headache, fatigue or a vague feeling of discomfort.

top of page

Who Should Not be Vaccinated?

top of page

For Health Professionals

Clinical Information on Meningococcal

top of page

Vaccine Recommendations

top of page

References and Resources

top of page

Provider Education

top of page

Materials for Patients

top of page

External Web Site Policy This symbol means you are leaving the CDC.gov Web site. For more information, please see CDC's Exit Notification and Disclaimer policy.

File Formats: All viewers, players, and plug-ins used on this site can be downloaded from the file formats page. (For example: Adobe Acrobat Reader for pdf files, Windows Media Player for audio and video files, PowerPoint Viewer for presentation slides, etc.)

This page last modified on April 16, 2012
Content last reviewed on March 19, 2012
Content Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

Safer Healthier People

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333, U.S.A
Public Inquiries: 1-800-CDC-INFO (232-4636); 1-888-232-6348 (TTY)

Vaccines and Immunizations