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Meningococcal disease, a serious infection caused by bacteria, can infect the blood, spinal cord and brain -- and can be fatal. It is spread via an infected person coughing or sneezing, touching contaminated surfaces or kissing.

Thursday's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said meningococcal conjugate vaccines were licensed in 2005 and based on additional data on bactericidal antibody persistence, trends in U.S. meningococcal disease epidemiology and vaccine effectiveness indicate many adolescents might not be protected for more than five years.

"Therefore, persons immunized at ages 1112 may have decreased protective immunity by ages 16-21, when their risk for disease is greatest", the report said.

"This report summarizes two recommendations approved by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices: 1) routine vaccination of adolescents, preferably at ages 11 or 12, with a booster dose at age 16 and 2) a two-dose primary series administered two months apart for persons age 2-54 years with persistent complement component (immunity) deficiency and functional or anatomic asplenia -- absence of the spleen."

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