The main virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumoniae is the capsule. The polysaccharides comprising this capsule are encoded by approximately 15 genes and differences in these genes result in different serotypes. The aim of this study was to investigate the sequence diversity of the capsular genes of serotypes 6A, 6B, 6C, 19A and 19F and to explore a possible effect of vaccination on variation...

BACKGROUND Meningococcal disease is infrequently found in Taiwan, a country with 23 million people. Between 1996 and 2002, 17 to 81 clinical cases of the disease were reported annually. Reported cases dramatically increased in 2001-2002. Our record shows that only serogroup B and W135 meningococci have been isolated from patients with meningococcal disease until 2000. However, serogroup A, C an...

background and objectives: rapid clinical manifestation/progression of the meningococcal meningitis and lacunae in conventional bacteriological test often encourages indiscriminate use of antibiotics much before the etiology is established. this study was planned to evaluate ctra pcr for rapid molecular detection. in addition, multiplex pcr and sequencing was done for serogroup prediction to pr...

Techniques were developed for genetic characterization of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 by using restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Allozyme analysis provided an index of the discrimination achieved by restriction fragment length polymorphism. Isolates from human cases of legionellosis were examined by both methods, and their profiles were compared with reference strains of...

Counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIE) was found to be a rapid, specific method for detecting circulating antibodies to Legionella pneumophila, using a simple ultrasonically disrupted antigen. The diagnostic specificity of the technique was 93% and the diagnostic sensitivity was 86.3%. Both IgM and IgG classes of antibody can be detected. There is some cross-reactivity between serogroup 1 and serog...

Monoclonal antibodies with two kinds of specificities, produced against Leptospira interrogans serovar pomona, were studied by agglutination and immunoblotting. Antibodies reacted either exclusively with serovar pomona or with all members of the Pomona serogroup, but none of the antibodies reacted with representative serovars of other serogroups. Both antibodies recognized epitopes on purified ...

Neisseria meningitidis can be considered a continually emerging pathogen due to its genetic mutability and dynamic epidemiology. Currently, six serogroups (A, B, C, W-135, X and Y) are important to global disease epidemiology. Until 2000, serogroup W-135 was rare worldwide. Hajj-associated W-135 outbreaks caused by a virulent ST-11 strain in 2000 and 2001 raised concerns about widespread epidem...

During periods of endemic meningococcal disease, serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis is responsible for a significant percentage of invasive diseases, and no particular clone or strain predominates (F. E. Ashton and D. A. Caugant, Can. J. Microbiol. 47: 293-289, 2001), However, in the winter of 2004 to 2005, a cluster of serogroup B meningococcal disease occurred in one region in the province of...

Study of the epidemiologic trends in meningococcal disease is important in understanding infection dynamics and developing timely and appropriate public health interventions. We studied surveillance data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which showed that during 1989-2000 a decrease occurred in both the proportion of patients with serogroup B infection (from 28% to...

Meningococcal diseases are serious threats to global health, and new vaccines specifically tailored to meet the age-related needs of various geographical areas are required. This paper focuses on the meningococcal conjugate vaccines developed by GSK Biologicals. Two combined conjugate vaccines were developed to help protect infants and young children in countries where the incidence of meningoc...