On Nov. 23, 1981, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration licensed Quadrivalent groups A, C, Y, and W-135 (Menomune A/C/Y/W-135 by Connaught) meningococcal vaccine. This pure polysaccharide vaccine although immunogenic in older children and adults, does not induce long-term memory nor an anamnestic response upon antigenic re-exposure.

Because this and other polysaccharide meningococcal vaccines were found to induce a relatively poor immune response in children younger than two years and not able to elicit long-term immunologic memory, their use was limited to persons 2 years of age and older.