Carriage meningococcal isolates with capsule null locus dominate among high school students in a non-endemic period, Italy, 2012-2013.

Carriage meningococcal isolates with capsule null locus dominate among high school students in a non-endemic period, Italy, 2012-2013. Int J Med Microbiol. 2019 Mar 06;: Authors: Neri A, Fazio C, Ambrosio L, Vacca P, Barbui A, Daprai L, Vocale C, Santino I, Conte M, Rossi L, Ciammaruconi A, Anselmo A, Lista F, Stefanelli P Abstract Meningococcal disease incidence in Italy remains quite low in the overall population except for infants. Within a study on carriage isolates among high school students we aimed to define: i) the prevalence of carriage isolates, ii) the phenotypic and iii) the molecular features of meningococci by Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS). A total of 1697 pharyngeal samples from undergraduate students (age range 14-19 years) were collected from 2012 to 2013 from six larger cities in Italy. One hundred and twenty culture positive meningococci (7%) were analyzed. Carriage isolates were sent to the National Reference Laboratory for invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) for PCR-based serogroup identification, Multilocus Sequence Typing, PorA and FetA typing. Moreover, factor H binding protein (fHbp), Neisseria Heparin Binding Antigen (NHBA) and Neisserial adhesin A (NadA) were typed. Core genome MLST (cgMLST) was performed on a subsample of 75 carriage isolates. Capsule null locus (cnl) predominated (47%), followed by serogroup B (27%). The antimicrobial susceptibility profile revealed an high prevalence of reduced suscepti...
Source: International Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Int J Med Microbiol Source Type: research