Counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE) was found to be a rapid, specific method for detecting circulating antibodies to Legionella pneumophila, using a simple ultrasonically disrupted antigen. The diagnostic specificity of the technique was 93% and the diagnostic sensitivity was 86.3%. Both IgM and IgG classes of antibody can be detected. There is some cross-reactivity between serogroup 1 and serog...

salmonellosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases worldwide. salmonella infections in wild birds are reported frequently. the objectives of this study were to isolate salmonella serovars from a large collection of samples obtained from pet birds in tehran, iran, and then to determine the serotypes and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the isolates. between october 2007 and augu...

The main virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumoniae is the capsule. The polysaccharides comprising this capsule are encoded by approximately 15 genes and differences in these genes result in different serotypes. The aim of this study was to investigate the sequence diversity of the capsular genes of serotypes 6A, 6B, 6C, 19A and 19F and to explore a possible effect of vaccination on variation...

Neisseria meningitidis can be considered a continually emerging pathogen due to its genetic mutability and dynamic epidemiology. Currently, six serogroups (A, B, C, W-135, X and Y) are important to global disease epidemiology. Until 2000, serogroup W-135 was rare worldwide. Hajj-associated W-135 outbreaks caused by a virulent ST-11 strain in 2000 and 2001 raised concerns about widespread epidem...

Campylobacter jejuni was isolated from stool cultures from 14 (30%) of 46 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome and from 6 (1.2%) of 503 healthy persons, and the difference was highly significant (p < 0.0001). In addition, serological evidence of recent C. jejuni infection was found in 5 of 29 patients with negative stool cultures. Therefore, 41% of patients were associated with C. jejuni infec...

The prevalence and serogroups of Salmonella recovered following air chilling were determined for both enriched neck skin and matching enriched whole carcass samples. Commercially processed and eviscerated carcasses were air chilled to 4°C before removing the neck skin (8.3 g) and stomaching in 83 mL buffered peptone water. The remaining carcass was subjected to whole carcass enrichment in 500 m...

Study of the epidemiologic trends in meningococcal disease is important in understanding infection dynamics and developing timely and appropriate public health interventions. We studied surveillance data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which showed that during 1989-2000 a decrease occurred in both the proportion of patients with serogroup B infection (from 28% to...

Meningococcal diseases are serious threats to global health, and new vaccines specifically tailored to meet the age-related needs of various geographical areas are required. This paper focuses on the meningococcal conjugate vaccines developed by GSK Biologicals. Two combined conjugate vaccines were developed to help protect infants and young children in countries where the incidence of meningoc...

BACKGROUND In order to inform meningococcal disease prevention strategies, we analysed the epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in the province of Quebec, Canada, 10 years before and 10 years after the introduction of serogroup C conjugate vaccination. METHODOLOGY IMD cases reported to the provincial notifiable disease registry in 1991-2011 and isolates submitted for laborator...

In Oregon and parts of Washington State, the incidence of serogroup B meningococcal disease increased substantially in 1994 (1). Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE) subtyping of N. meningitidis serogroup B strains collected in these areas during 1993 and 1994 suggested that these increases were due to a group of genetically related strains of the enzyme type-5 (ET-5) complex. ET-5 N. mening...