To compensate for the lack of laboratories in remote areas, the national reference laboratory for meningitis in Niger used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to enhance the surveillance of meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Haemophilus influenzae. PCR effectively documented the wide geographic spread of N. meningitidis serogroup W135.

Serogroup C meningococcal conjugate vaccines generally use diphtheria or tetanus toxoids as the protein carriers. The use of alternative carrier proteins may allow multivalent conjugate vaccines to be formulated into a single injection and circumvent potential problems of immune suppression in primed individuals. Bordetella pertussis fimbriae were assessed as carrier proteins for Neisseria meni...

Infections associated with Neisseria meningitidis are a major public health problem in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Currently, over 40% of cases are confirmed directly from clinical specimens using PCR-based methodologies without an organism being isolated. A nested/seminested multilocus sequence typing (MLST) system was developed at the Health Protection Agency Meningococcal Reference...

GNA2132 (Genome-derived Neisseria Antigen 2132) is a surface-exposed lipoprotein discovered by reverse vaccinology and expressed by genetically diverse Neisseria meningitidis strains (Pizza et al. 2000). The protein induces bactericidal antibodies against most strains of Meningococccus and has been included in a multivalent recombinant vaccine against N. meningitidis serogroup B. Structure dete...

In 2012, there were 208 laboratory-confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) analysed by the National Neisseria Network, and 222 cases notified to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, thus laboratory data were available for 93.7% of cases of IMD in Australia in 2012. Isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from 116 invasive cases of meningococcal disease were available...

What is meningococcal disease? Meningococcal disease is caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis. The bacteria are transmitted from person to person through nasopharyngeal secretions. Close and prolonged contact is usually required for transmission. Most people carry the bacteria asymptomatically in the nose and throat. Disease occurs very rarely when bacteria invade the bloodstream. Meni...

Background: Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) remains a major public health problem associated with death and severe consequences, especially in children. However, IMD is preventable through vaccination, vaccines available to cover five of the six most common disease-causing strains (A, B, C, X, Y, W). Surveillance systems are necessary for monitoring incidence, together severity serogroup p...

This study was performed to determine the incidence and serogroups of meningococcal disease in the Korean Army. From August 2000 to July 2001, we identified prospective cases in the Korean Army. Meningococcal disease was confirmed by isolation of Neisseria meningitidis or detection of its antigen by latex agglutination from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or blood. Polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) w...

Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C (NMSC) isolates of electrophoretic type 24 (ET-24), as identified by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, are the main cause of serogroup C meningococcal disease outbreaks and sporadic meningococcal disease in the United States. We evaluated a random amplified polymorphic DNA assay as a rapid tool to screen for isolates of ET-24 by testing 199 NMSC isolates of 5...

The functional activities of serum samples from human infants immunized with a glycoconjugate vaccine for Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C were assessed in a complement-mediated antibody-dependent serum bactericidal assay (SBA) and in a neonate rat model of protection from bacteremia. Selective serum samples from individual human infants were combined to make a panel of 11 serum pools to obta...