BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Neisseria meningitidis is transmitted from person-to-person. Thus, close contact with a healthy carrier can facilitate the spread of the bacteria and lead to life-threatening meningococcal disease. The aim of this study was to identify oropharyngeal carriers of N. meningitidis in volunteers preparing for military service before vaccination. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a...

Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 and several other serogroups of non-O157 STEC are causative agents of severe disease in humans world-wide. The present study was conducted to characterize STEC O157 and non-O157 serogroups O26, O103, O111, O121, O45, and O145 in ruminants in Malaysia. A total of 136 ruminant feces samples were collected from 6 different farms in Peninsular Malaysia. ...

The highest incidence of meningococcal disease occurs in infants younger than 1 year of age. However, in the US, prior to June 2012, there was no meningococcal vaccine licensed for use in this age group. In the US, where both serogroups C and Y contribute substantially to the overall epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease, a vaccine combining these capsular polysaccharides was developed...

background leptospirosis is a systemic infectious disease caused by pathogenic bacteria belonging to the species of leptospira, it is considered to be the most common zoonosis in the world. this is a serious and sometimes fatal infection which is transmitted from animals to humans by entering the digestive tract or mucosal membrane. within the initial 10-12 day period, the patient may experienc...

Fecal specimens for Yersinia screening were obtained from a variety of wild mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and invertebrates throughout New York state. One specimen from each of 1,426 animals was examined. A total of 148 isolates of Yersinia enterocolitica and related species were obtained from 133 (9.3%) of the animals. Y. enterocolitica was isolated from 100 (7%) of the animals tested, inclu...

Leptospirosis is an infectious, zoonotic disease of a major worldwide importance of animals and humans (1, 2). It is caused by antigenically distinct serovars of the spirochetal bacterium Leptospira interrogans sensu lato. Over 200 serovars of L. interrogans sensu lato have been described and have been classified in different species (e.g., L. interrogans, L. kirschneri, L. borgpetersenii) (1-5...

BACKGROUND This study is performed to reveal most common species and subspecies of leptospires that are main causes of human leptospirosis in Guilan, Northern Province of Iran. METHODS We performed IgM-ELISA and MAT on 282 blood samples from patients who attended to 3 hospitals in the flat area of Guilan Province with clinical symptoms consisted with leptospirosis. All specimens with titers ≥...

Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis which is responsible for the typical form of Weil's disease. The epidemiological surveillance of the Leptospira species agent is important for host prevalence control. Although the genotyping methods have progressed, the identification of some serovars remains ambiguous. We investigated the multispacer sequence typing (MST) method for genotyping strains bel...