Outbreak of invasive meningococcal disease in Goleniow County, northwest Poland, March 2009.

In March 2009, six cases of invasive meningococ-cal disease (IMD) were reported in two communes of Goleniów County in northwest Poland. The people affected were aged from seven to 25 years. The overall incidence rate in the county was eight per 100,000 population. All the patients recovered fully. No epidemiological links were established between the cases. All were infected with Neisseria meningi-tidis serogroup C, sequence type (ST) 11 and analysis of isolate DNA restriction fragment length polymor-phism showed indistinguishable pulsed-field gel elec-trophoresis (PFGE) patterns. Sequencing of porA and fetA genes revealed that all isolates had PorA variant P1.5,2 and FetA variant F3-3. Based on epidemiological and microbiological data, the Polish Working Party on Meningococcal Infections took the decision to compulsorily vaccinate populations at highest risk in the region – primarily people aged from 6 to 19 years.