BACKGROUND University students have high rates of pharyngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis. Interruption of carriage acquisition is an important mechanism of vaccines for inducing herd protection. 4CMenB and MenACWY-CRM vaccines have been shown to be immunogenic against meningococcal serogroups B and ACWY respectively in younger age groups, and also to elicit a modest impact on meningococc...

Previously, the Fiji Pneumococcal Project (FiPP) evaluated reduced dose immunization schedules that incorporated pneumococcal protein conjugate and/or polysaccharide vaccine (PCV7 and 23vPPV, respectively). Immune hyporesponsiveness was observed in children vaccinated with 23vPPV at 12 months of age compared with children who did not receive 23vPPV. Here we assess the long-term impact of 23vPPV...

We document the absence of carriage of Neisseria meningitidis W-135 of the sequence type 11 in returning pilgrims after the Hajj 2002. This finding contrasts with the 15% carriage rate we previously reported in pilgrims returning from the Hajj 2001. The epidemiology of carriage may be changing or may have been controlled by vaccination and a policy of administering antibiotics to pilgrims from ...

This point-prevalence study was conducted to establish rates of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) nasal carriage in GPs in three counties in the West of Ireland. One hundred and twenty GPs were randomly selected for the study and 78 participated. The prevalence rate of nasal carriage of MRSA in these participants was 7.7%. A number of GPs in the West of Ireland have nasal carria...

BACKGROUND Methicillin-resistant S. pseudintermedius strains (MRSP) are reported with increasing frequency in bacterial cultures from dogs. The objectives of this study were to determine whether MRSP could be found in dogs several months after a clinically apparent infection and whether the length of carriage varied depending on systemic antimicrobial treatment, diagnosis at time of the first p...

BACKGROUND It is postulated that the surge in incidence and severity of group A streptococcus (GAS) infections since the 1980s is due to the emergence of strains of GAS with increased virulence. We used active, population-based surveillance of invasive GAS disease, serologically confirmed pharyngitis, and carriage to determine whether particular strains were associated with invasive disease. ...

Conjugate vaccines protect vaccinated individuals against both disease from and nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Protection is specific to the capsular serotype(s) included in the vaccine. This specificity has raised concern that vaccination against particular ("targeted") serotypes may cause an increase in carriage of (and diseases attributable to...

The standard method for detecting meningococcal carriage is culture of throat swabs on selective media, but the levels of carriage determined depend heavily on the skills of the individuals taking the swab and interpreting the cultures. This study aimed to determine the most sensitive detection method for meningococcal carriage. Throat swabs and saline mouth gargles, obtained from 89 university...

Staphylococcus aureus has long been recognized as an important pathogen in human disease. Due to an increasing number of infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains, therapy has become problematic. Therefore, prevention of staphylococcal infections has become more important. Carriage of S. aureus appears to play a key role in the epidemiology and pathogenesis of infectio...

Asymptomatic and persistent colonization of the upper respiratory tract by Neisseria meningitidis occurs despite elicitation of adaptive immune responses against surface antigens. A putative mechanism for facilitating host persistence of this bacterial commensal and pathogen is alterations in expression of surface antigens by simple sequence repeat (SSR)-mediated phase variation. We investigate...