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 ...

The recent discovery of a geographically dispersed clonal group of Escherichia coli O4:H5 that includes prototypic uropathogenic strain J96 prompted us to determine the prevalence of J96-like strains within serogroup O4 and to further assess the characteristics of such strains. We used O:K:H;F serotyping, PCR-based genomic fingerprinting, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus enzy...

The Global Meningococcal Initiative (GMI) has recently considered current issues in Middle Eastern and African countries, and produced two recommendations: (i) that vaccination of attendees should be considered for some types of mass-gathering events, as some countries mandate for the Hajj, and (ii) vaccination of people with human immunodeficiency virus should be used routinely, because of inc...

Streptococcus pneumoniae clinical isolates were recently described that produced capsular polysaccharide with properties of both serotypes 6A and 6B. Their hybrid serological property correlated with mutations affecting the glycosyltransferase WciP, which links rhamnose to ribitol by an α(1-3) linkage for serotypes 6A and 6C and an α(1-4) linkage for serotypes 6B and 6D. The isolates had mutati...

In Algeria, few data is available concerning the distribution of pneumococcal serotypes and respective antibiotic resistance for the current pre-vaccination period, which is a public health concern. We identified the most frequent Streptococcus pneumoniae serogroup/types implicated in invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD; n = 80) and carriage (n = 138) in Algerian children younger than 5 years ol...

Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MC58) is a leading cause of meningitis and septicaemia, principally infects the infants and adolescents. No vaccine is available for the prevention of these infections because the serogroup B capsular polysaccharide is unable to stimulate an immune response, due to its similarity with polysialic acid. To overcome these obstacles, we proposed to develop a pept...

A study sample of 7,010 episodes of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae disease was obtained by combining 13 existing datasets. Disease episodes due to each of 12 pneumococcal serogroups (1, 3-9, 14, 18, 19, and 23) were then compared with episodes in a constant internal control group to describe serogroup-specific variations in disease frequency by age, sex, and geographic origin. The results ar...

The human bacterial pathogen Neisseria meningitidis remains a serious worldwide health threat, but progress is being made toward the control of meningococcal infections. This review summarizes current knowledge of the global epidemiology and the pathophysiology of meningococcal disease, as well as recent advances in prevention by new vaccines. Meningococcal disease patterns and incidence can va...

Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MnB) is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis; however, MnB is most commonly associated with asymptomatic carriage in the nasopharyngeal cavity, as opposed to the disease state. Two vaccines are now licensed for the prevention of MnB disease; a possible additional benefit of these vaccines could be to protect against disease indirectly by disrupting nasopha...