Meningococcal disease is an acute, severe bacterial infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis. The most common presentations of invasive meningococcal infection (IMD) are meningitis and sepsis, less common pathologic presentations include focal infections. IMD can develop from initial symptoms to death within 24 hours. As many as 20% of survivors have permanent sequelae. Infants < 1 year of ag...

BACKGROUND Following the introduction of meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine in Italy in 2005, changes in the epidemiology of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) were expected. The study aims were to describe the epidemiological trend and to characterize the isolates collected during the period 2008/09-2012/13 by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Data on laboratory confirmed meningoco...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have identified HIV infection as a potential risk factor for invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), suggesting that HIV-infected individuals could benefit from meningococcal vaccination to reduce their risk of this rare, but severe and potentially fatal infection. In the United Kingdom, as in most industrialised countries, HIV is not considered a risk factor for IMD. ...

BACKGROUND In England, Public Health England conducts enhanced surveillance of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). The continuing decline in reported IMD cases has raised concerns that the MRU may be underestimating true IMD incidence. METHODS We linked five national datasets to estimate disease burden over five years, including PHE Meningococcal Reference Unit (MRU) confirmations, hospital...

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a major public health issue due to its global distribution, potential of epidemic spread, predominant disease burden in children and adolescents, high case-fatality rates and substantial morbidity1-3. This disease presents a broad spectrum of manifestations and it is a neurological and clinical emergency that requires prompt recognition and initiation of ...

BACKGROUND Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis occurs approximately in 10% of the population, onset of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) cannot be predicted and differs between ages. It remains unclear, which host factors determine invasion of the bloodstream by the bacteria. Innate immunity has a very important role in the first recognition of invading pathogens. The functional single nucleo...

Background.  Neisseria meningitidis is the cause of meningococcal bacteremia and meningitis, and nasopharyngeal colonization with this pathogen is common. The incidence of invasive disease is highest in infants, whereas adolescents more often are carriers. Altered regulation or dysfunction of the innate immune system may predispose to invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). In this study, we inve...

In Italy, the meningococcal C conjugate vaccine (MenC) has been offered in most regions since 2009-2010. The incidence of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) was 0.25 confirmed cases per 100,000 in 2011, but this may be considerably underestimated due to underdetection and underreporting. This study estimates the impact of the MenC universal vaccination (URV) in the Puglia region by assessing ...

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a severe bacterial infectious disease with high mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. In recent years, industrialised countries have implemented vaccines targeting IMD in their National Immunisation Programmes (NIPs). In 2002, the Netherlands successfully implemented a single dose of meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine at the age of 14 months a...

In 2013, there were 143 laboratory-confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) analysed by the Australian National Neisseria Network (NNN). This was the lowest number of laboratory confirmed IMD cases referred to the NNN since the inception of the Australian Meningococcal Surveillance Programme in 1994. Probable and laboratory confirmed IMD is notifiable in Australia. There were 149...