Neisseria meningitidis infection can cause life-threatening meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia. Over the past 40 years, vaccines against most of the main meningococcal serogroups have offered increasingly good protection from disease, with one major exception in the developed world: serogroup B meningococcus (MenB). In the United States, MenB accounts for about a quarter of cases of menin...

CONTEXT In 1993, Oregon's incidence of serogroup B meningococcal disease began to rise because of a highly clonal group of strains designated enzyme type 5 (ET-5), the first such increase observed in the United States. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact that the ET-5 strain has had on the epidemiology of meningococcal disease in Oregon. DESIGN AND SETTING Epidemiologic analysis of surveillanc...

Neisseria meningitis is a human commensal bacterium that occasionally causes life-threatening disease. As with a number of other bacterial pathogens, meningococcal populations comprise distinct lineages, which persist over many decades and during global spread in the face of high rates of recombination. In addition, the propensity to cause invasive disease is associated with particular "hyperin...

In January 2003, the Commonwealth G o v e rnment commenced the National Meningococcal C Vaccination Program. This p rogram provides free meningococcal C conjugate vaccine over the next four years to all children and adolescents who turn one to 19 years of age in 2003, a target group of almost 6 million. The meningococcal C vaccine has also been added to the Australian Standard Vaccination Sched...

CONTEXT In 1994, surveillance by the Chicago Department of Public Health detected a growing trend in the proportion of invasive meningococcal infections caused by serogroup Y. OBJECTIVE To examine the emergence of serogroup Y meningococcal disease and compare its clinical characteristics with those of other meningococcal serogroups. DESIGN Population-based retrospective review of surveillan...

Two haemoglobin-binding proteins, HmbR and HpuAB, contribute to iron acquisition by Neisseria meningitidis. These receptors are subject to high frequency, reversible switches in gene expression--phase variation (PV)--due to mutations in homopolymeric (poly-G) repeats present in the open reading frame. The distribution and PV state of these receptors was assessed for a representative collection ...

Since 1994, The National Neisseria Network, a nationwide collaborative laboratory program, has examined and analysed isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from cases of invasive meningococcal disease in Australia. The phenotypes (serogroup, serotype and serosubtype) and antibiotic susceptibility of 393 isolates of N. meningitidis from invasive cases of meningococcal disease were determined in 2002...

The prevention of meningococcal disease may be improved by recombinant vaccines such as 4CMenB and rLP2086 that target the factor H binding protein (fHbp), an immunogenic surface component of Neisseria meningitidis present as one of three variants. Whether such vaccines decrease carriage of invasive isolates and thus induce herd immunity is unknown. We analyzed the genetic diversity and levels ...

which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Editorial Meningococcal disease presenting with meningitis or sepsis is a life-threatening illness with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite providing appropriate antibiotic therapy and supportive care, invasive meningococcal disease could ...

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a major public health issue due to its global distribution, potential of epidemic spread, predominant disease burden in children and adolescents, high case-fatality rates and substantial morbidity1-3. This disease presents a broad spectrum of manifestations and it is a neurological and clinical emergency that requires prompt recognition and initiation of ...