Article,
Increasing incidence of meningococcal disease in Spain associated with a new variant of serogroup C
European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases: Official Publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 17 (2): 85--89 (February 1998)PMID: 9629971.
Abstract
Serogroup B has been the main cause of meningococcal disease in Spain since at least 1979, but in recent years an increase in the prevalence of infection due to serogroup C meningococci has been detected. In 1996, for the first time, most cases of meningococcal disease were caused by serogroup C strains. The sero/subtype of all serogroup C meningococci received from 1993 to June 1996 was determined, and the results showed that C:2b:P1.2,5, the most common phenotype in 1995 and 1996 (63\% and 65\%, respectively), represented only 4.8\% of strains in 1993. The C:2b: P1.2,5 epidemic strains appear to be responsible for the high prevalence of serogroup C in Spain. One hundred fifty-one randomly selected serogroup C strains were analyzed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, ribotyping, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis provided the most accurate information: more than 80\% of the C:2b:P1.2,5 and C:2b:P1.2 isolates exhibited one of two very closely related profiles, while most of the C:2b:NST and C:2b:P1.5 strains had a pattern located at a genetic distance of 0.24 from those two profiles. The results show that C:2b:P1.2,5 strains represent a subclone or a genetic variant of the previously identified Spanish epidemic clone C:2b:non-subtypable strains.
Tags
- bacterial
- bacterial,
- deoxyribonucleases,
- electrophoresis,
- enzymes,
- gel,
- genotype,
- humans,
- incidence,
- infections,
- meningitidis,
- meningitis,
- meningococcal
- meningococcal,
- neisseria
- polyacrylamide
- ribosomal,
- serotyping,
- spain
- techniques,
- type
- typing
- {dna,}
- {ii}
- {pulsed-field,}
- {rna,}
- {site-specific,}
