I have a 7-year-old patient with congenital asplenia. Would you consider giving her meningococcal B vaccine (MenB)?

Use of either brand of MenB in persons younger than age 10 years is off-label in the U.S. There is no ACIP recommendation for use of this vaccine for this age group.

Bexsero (MenB-4C) has been studied among infants and is approved for infants by the European Medicines Agency (the European version of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration). It is routinely recommended for infants in the United Kingdom (see www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/pages/meningitis-b-vaccine.aspx for details). A clinician may choose to use a vaccine off-label if, in their opinion, the benefit of the vaccine exceeds the risk from the vaccine.