Neisseria meningitidis is a human pathogen that causes septicemia and meningitis with high mortality. The disease progression is rapid and much remains unknown about the disease process. The understanding of disease development is crucial for development of novel therapeutic strategies and vaccines against meningococcal disease. The use of bioluminescent imaging combined with a mouse disease mo...

BACKGROUND The incidence of serogroup C and Y meningococcal disease increased in the United States during the 1990s. The cyclical nature of endemic meningococcal disease remains unexplained. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms associated with the increase in the incidence of meningococcal disease. METHODS We characterized an increasing incidence of invasive serogroup C...

BACKGROUND The prenatal period may be important for susceptibility to infections. We evaluated whether low birthweight, prematurity, and prenatal maternal smoking were associated with increased risk of invasive meningococcal disease. METHODS We linked the Danish nationwide National Registry of Patients, the Birth Registry, and social registries to obtain data on fetal growth and social factor...

AIM To evaluate mortality of critically ill children admitted with meningococcal disease. METHODS Prospective study of all children admitted to a regional paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) between January 1995 and March 1998 with meningococcal disease. Outcome measures were actual overall mortality, predicted mortality (by PRISM), and standardised mortality ratio. RESULTS A total of 123...

Invasive meningococcal disease is nationally reportable in Canada. In recent years, a serogroup C genotype, designated electrophoretic type 15 (ET15), has been the most frequently isolated meningococcal genotype in Canada and has caused epidemics across the country. Between August 1993 and September 1995, there were 9 cases of invasive meningococcal disease caused by a variant of this genotype,...

CONTEXT Neisseria meningitidis is a common cause of meningitis and septicemia in infants worldwide. Whether a meningococcal C conjugate vaccine protects infants against the serogroup C strain is unknown. OBJECTIVES To determine whether a meningococcal C conjugate vaccine is safe and immunogenic and induces immunologic memory in infants. DESIGN Single-center, double-blind, randomized control...

The sneaky meningococcus is a bacterium that can cause terrible disease. Development of an effective vaccine has been extremely difficult. Meningococcal vaccines developed in the 1990s are based on bacterial capsule, shield protects bacteria and used to instruct our body combat this These work against four types meningococcus: A, C, W, Y. However, they do not B. Scientists had invent completely...

OBJECTIVES Myocardial failure, leading to inotrope-unresponsive shock, is the predominant cause of death in meningococcal and other forms of septic shock. Proinflammatory cytokines released in septic shock are known to have myocardial depressant effects. We previously showed that interleukin 6 is a major myocardial depressant factor in children with meningococcal septicemia. In the current stud...

An outbreak of 7 cases of group C meningococcal disease occurred during the last week of July and the first week of August 2001 in the southwestern part of The Netherlands. Characterization of the 7 patients' isolates by various typing methods showed that the isolates were identical, except for the expression of PorA. Isolates from 5 patients were PorA deficient. These results show that transmi...

Preadmission administration of antibiotics to patients with suspected meningococcal infection has decreased the likelihood of obtaining an isolate and has stimulated development of rapid and reliable non-culture-based diagnostic methods. The sensitivity of the conventional test card latex agglutination test (TCLAT) for detection of capsular polysaccharide has been reported to be suboptimal. In ...