A cluster of invasive meningococcal disease revealed by the characterization of a novel serogroup B meningococcal clone

L. Valinsky, J. Jaffe, N. Keller, C. Block, N. Abramson, C. Stein-Zamir

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The incidence of invasive infections due to Neisseria meningitidis in Israel is about 1/100 000 population annually. Three cases of meningococcal meningitis were reported in employees at a single plant; the first case appeared in March 2013 and the second and third cases appeared in December, almost 9 months later. N. meningitidis serogroup B was isolated from cerebrospinal fluid samples. Multilocus sequence typing assigned the three meningococcal isolates to ST10418, a new sequence type and a member of the ST32 clonal complex. The clonality was confirmed by performance of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Post-exposure antibiotic prophylaxis was administered to close contacts of the first case. Upon the diagnosis of the additional two cases, post-exposure prophylaxis was administered to all the plant employees. This report demonstrates the importance of combining public health measures and advanced laboratory studies to confirm clonality and to prevent further disease spread in a closed setting.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)183-188
Number of pages6
JournalEpidemiology and Infection
Volume144
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Cluster
  • Neisseria meningitidis
  • invasive meningococcal disease
  • molecular epidemiology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A cluster of invasive meningococcal disease revealed by the characterization of a novel serogroup B meningococcal clone'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this