Legionella pneumophila subsp. pneumophila serogroup 6 is second in importance only to L. pneumophila serogroup 1 as a cause of legionellosis. Monoclonal antibody (MAb) reactivity and multilocus enzyme electrophoretic analyses were used to subtype serogroup 6 isolates as a potential aid for epidemiologic and virulence studies. Forty-eight serogroup 6 isolates submitted to the Centers for Disease...

Various meningococcal conjugate vaccines exist against serogroups A, C, W and Y. A new protein-based vaccine targeting serogroup B (MenB) is also now available. The potential of such vaccines to drive serogroup replacement is considered a possible public health concern when implementing nationwide routine immunization programmes. The aim of this work was to investigate if and how serogroup repl...

We used the Du Pont radioimmunoassay kit for soluble Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigenuria (Du Pont Co., Wilmington, Del.) to test 422 urine samples from patients with and without Legionnaires disease (LD). The urine specimens were collected from 23 patients with culture-proven LD and from 346 patients without LD. L. pneumophila serogroup 1 was isolated from 14 patients with culture-pr...

BACKGROUND In the African meningitis belt, Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W135 has emerged as a cause of epidemic disease. The establishment of W135 as the predominant cause of endemic disease has not been described. METHODS We conducted national laboratory-based surveillance for invasive meningococcal disease during 2000-2005. The system was enhanced in 2003 to include clinical data collec...

With coagglutination reagents prepared against W antigens, 205 clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were classified into three serogroups WI, WII, and WIII. Of 195 strains isolated from patients who acquired their infection in the Edinburgh area, 85 (44%) belonged to serogroup WI and 110 (56%) to serogroup WII. Serogroup WII accounted for 90% of all isolates from homosexual men and for 34...

The DNA fingerprint profiles and somatic serotypes of 71 Pasteurella multocida capsule serogroup B isolates, 13 capsule serogroup E isolates, and 16 somatic reference serotype strains were compared. Each of the 16 reference somatic serotypes had a unique DNA fingerprint profile with the HhaI restriction endonuclease. Fifty-four serogroup B isolates (isolated from classical cases of hemorrhagic ...

Meningococcal disease remains a public health burden in the UK and elsewhere. Invasive Neisseria meningitidis, isolated in Scotland between 1972 and 1998, were characterised retrospectively to examine the serogroup and clonal structure of the circulating population. 2607 isolates causing invasive disease were available for serogroup and MLST analysis whilst 2517 were available for multilocus se...

In the period 2008-2010, 309 Neisseria meningitidis, isolated in Italy within the National Surveillance of the Invasive Meningococcal Diseases, have been tested for their phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. The main results obtained are: (a) an increase of the strains of serogroup B and a decrease of serogroup C; (b) a phenotypic and genotypic variability of the ST-41/44 clonal complex, t...

Meningococcal disease causes at least 500,000 cases and 50,000 deaths worldwide each year. Epidemics of meningococcal meningitis occur in many parts of the world. Serogroup A is associated with explosive epidemics with attack rates up to 500 per 100,000. An epidemic of serogroup A in the African ‘meningitis belt’, which began in 1996, has resulted in at least 300,000 cases to date and many thou...