BACKGROUND To assess changes in the pattern of Invasive Meningococcal Disease (IMD) in Italy after the introduction of conjugate menC vaccine in the National Vaccine Plan 2005-2007 and to provide information for developing timely and appropriate public health interventions, analyses of microbiological features of isolates and clinical characteristics of patients have been carried out. In Italy,...

Background Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C (NmC) outbreaks occur infrequently in the African meningitis belt; the most recent report of an outbreak of this serogroup was in Burkina Faso, 1979. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) has been responding to outbreaks of meningitis in northwest Nigeria since 2007 with no reported cases of serogroup C from 2007-2012. MenAfrivac®, a serogroup A conjugate ...

BACKGROUND The conjugate vaccine against serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (NmA), MenAfriVac, is currently being introduced throughout the African meningitis belt. In repeated multicentre cross-sectional studies in Burkina Faso we demonstrated a significant effect of vaccination on NmA carriage for one year following mass vaccination in 2010. A new multicentre carriage study was performed in O...

Dear Editor, Several antibiotics are currently used for meningococcal prophylaxis, including ciprofloxacin, rifampin, and ceftriaxone. Ciprofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone, is often used in adults because of its convenient single-dose regimen. In contrast to an emerging trend worldwide, ciprofloxacin-resistant Neisseria meningitidis has not been reported in Korea [1, 2]. We report the first instanc...

BACKGROUND Legionnaires' disease (LD) is associated with high mortality rates and poses a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Use of the rapid urinary antigen test (UAT) has been linked to improved outcome. We examined the association between the method of diagnosis (UAT or culture) and various clinical and microbiological characteristics and outcome of LD. METHODS Consecutive patients with...

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...

Recently, an immunochromatographic assay for rapid qualitative detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen in urine specimens has become available (NOW Legionella urinary antigen test; Binax, Portland, Maine). We have previously shown that this test is of clinical value in providing a rapid diagnosis of Legionnaires’ disease, especially in patients with severe community-acquired pne...

*Corresponding author: Mailing address: Miyagi Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environment, Saiwai-cho 4-7-2, Miyagino-ku, Sendai 983-0836, Japan. Fax: +81-22-257-7194, E-mail: [email protected] Outbreaks of mass food poisoning due to enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) have been rare in Japan. In this report, we describe an outbreak of food poisoning considered to have ...