Thirty three penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) and 152 non-PPNG strains were serologically classified in relation to their patterns of resistance to antimicrobials, nutritional requirements (auxotypes), and plasmid contents. Of the 185 strains, 65 (35%) belonged to the WI and 120 (65%) to the WII/III serogroup, the predominant serovars of which were Arost and Bropt, respectiv...

Legionella pneumophila is the major causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease. The distribution of L. pneumophila in environmental water systems of public facilities in Busan, South Korea was previously reported; however, the distribution of virulence genes in environmental and clinical isolates in Busan is unknown. Here, we investigated using PCR the distribution of three virulence loci (dot/ic...

Containment strategies for outbreaks of invasive Neisseria meningitidis disease are informed by serogroup assays that characterize the polysaccharide capsule. We sought to uncover the genomic basis of conflicting serogroup assay results for an isolate (M16917) from a patient with acute meningococcal disease. To this end, we characterized the complete genome sequence of the M16917 isolate and pe...

BACKGROUND Herd immunity is important in the effectiveness of conjugate polysaccharide vaccines against encapsulated bacteria. A large multicenter study investigated the effect of meningococcal serogroup C conjugate vaccine introduction on the meningococcal population. METHODS Carried meningococci in individuals aged 15-19 years attending education establishments were investigated before and ...

A monoclonal antibody (MAb), MO15, was raised against the lipopolysaccharide antigen of an epsilon15-lysogenized serogroup E(1) Salmonella strain. The O factor 15-specific MAb MO15, together with another serogroup E-specific MAb, can differentiate among phage lysogenization variants in serogroup E salmonellae. Their epitope specificities in relation to conventional O-antigenic structures are di...

In 2011, there were 241 laboratory-confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) analysed by the National Neisseria Network, which represented 100% of cases notified to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. One hundred and twenty-five isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from invasive cases of meningococcal disease were available for which the phenotypes (serogroup, sero...

A total of 357 clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from 286 patients were classified serologically using two independently developed panels of monoclonal coagglutination reagents. The Pharmacia (Ph) Diagnostics panel comprised 14 reagents, five specific for serogroup WI strains and nine specific for serogroup WII/III strains, whereas the Genetic Systems (GS) panel comprised 14 reagents, ...

Received 3 March 2004; accepted 4 March 2004; electronically published 12 May 2004. Reprints or correspondence: Dr. Michael A. Apicella, Dept. of Microbiology, University of Iowa, 51 Newton Rd., Iowa City, IA 52242 ([email protected]). Clinical Infectious Diseases 2004; 38:1638–9 2004 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. 1058-4838/2004/3811-0023$15.00 Nei...

The meningococcal ST-11 complex (cc11) causes large invasive disease outbreaks with high case fatality rates, such as serogroup C (MenC) epidemics in industrialised nations in the 1990s and the serogroup W epidemic currently expanding globally. Glycoconjugate vaccines are available for serogroups A, C, W and Y. Broad coverage protein-based vaccines have recently been licensed against serogroup ...