Neisseria meningitidis, an exclusive pathogen of humans, remains the leading worldwide cause of meningitis and fatal sepsis, usually in otherwise healthy individuals. In recent years, significant advances have improved our understanding of the epidemiology and genetic basis of meningococcal disease and led to progress in the development of the next generation of meningococcal vaccines. This rev...

BACKGROUND/AIM Meningococcal disease most often manifests itself as meningitis or sepsis. During the course of these diseases, other clinical events sometimes develop such as pneumonia, pericarditis, arthritis, and they are referred to as extrameningeal or systemic manifestations of the meningococcal disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the type and the incidence of particular extr...

Neisseria meningitidis causes fulminant meningitis and sepsis. Worldwide, N. meningitidis serogroup A is responsible for large epidemic outbreaks (e.g., subSaharan Africa) and serogroups B, C, Y and W-135 cause epidemic and endemic disease. Meningococci are usually transmitted from person to person through close contact with contaminated aerosols and secretions from the human nasopharynx. Labor...

We present a retrospective analysis of clinical profile of 100 children admitted to a Government hospital at Delhi between April 2005 and December 2006 with group A meningococcal infection. Maximum children presented in late winter and spring. Younger children were less affected (5% children < 1 year). Fever (86%), vomiting (64%) and rash (63%) were the most common presenting symptoms. All chil...

Meningococcal disease is a major public health concern in Sahelian Africa, where over half of the cases reported worldwide occur. In an effort to find annual spatial clusters of meningococcal disease and in order to study their evolution in Niger from January 2002 to June 2008, a prospective study of routine national surveillance data was conducted pertaining to patients with suspected bacteria...

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were tested for their cytotoxicity to polymorphonuclear neutrophil leucocytes (PMN) using a 51Cr release assay. Most samples from patients with pyogenic meningitis damaged PMN while normal CSF samples did not. No difference was found between the cytotoxic activity of CSF from patients with pneumococcal meningitis and from patients with meningococcal meningitis....

651. Epidemiology of Serogroup B Meningococcal Outbreaks and Interim Guidelines for the Use of an Unlicensed Serogroup B Vaccine Under a CDCSponsored IND for the Control of Outbreaks in Organizational Settings Sarah Meyer, MD, MPH; Jessica Macneil, MPH; Amy Blain, MPH; Thomas a. Clark, MD, MPH; Amanda Cohn, MD; For the Meningococcal Outbreak Work Group,; Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Disea...