The relationship between carriage and the development of invasive meningococcal disease is not fully understood. We investigated the changes in meningococcal carriage in 892 military recruits in Finland during a nonepidemic period (July 2004 to January 2006) and characterized all of the oropharyngeal meningococcal isolates obtained (n = 215) by using phenotypic (serogrouping and serotyping) and...

Meningococcal serogroup-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgG1, and IgG2 concentrations were assigned to three reference sera, CDC 1992, 89-SF, and 96/562, for meningococcal serogroups A, C, Y, and W135 via the method of cross standardization. The sum of the serogroup-specific IgG1 and IgG2 concentrations determined for the four meningococcal serogroups showed good agreement with the serogroup-s...

The aims were to (1) investigate the aetiology of probable meningococcal disease, where a clinical diagnosis is made in the absence of laboratory data, and (2) evaluate the impact of the Men C vaccination programme in England and Wales. Multiple linear regression analyses were carried out using data reported to Enhanced Surveillance of Meningococcal Disease (ESMD) and laboratory reports of isol...

The clinical presentations of meningococcal diseases other than meningitis or meningococcemia may lead to erroneous diagnosis. Although several reports have described unusual meningococcal diseases, the Neisseria meningitidis strains involved in these forms have been poorly characterized. In this study, meningococcal arthritis and pericarditis were confirmed by isolation of N. meningitidis and/...

BACKGROUND Serogroup C meningococcal conjugate polysaccharide vaccines have been reported to induce significant serum IgG antibodies and immunologic memory in infants. Because meningococcus is a mucosal pathogen colonizing the nasopharynx, local mucosal immune responses may play an important role in host defense against infection and carriage. We have investigated the mucosal IgA and IgG antibo...

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...

In August 1987, an outbreak of group A meningococcal meningitis occurred during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, resulting in an attack rate among American pilgrims of 640 per 100,000. To determine risk factors for carriage, throat cultures were taken from passengers arriving on four consecutive flights from Saudi Arabia to the United States. Pilgrims were more likely to be group A...

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...