Skip to main content
PMC home page
Epidemiology and Infection logoLink to Epidemiology and Infection
. 1992 Oct;109(2):241–253. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800050196

Transmission of Neisseria meningitidis among asymptomatic military recruits and antibody analysis.

D A Caugant 1, E A Høiby 1, E Rosenqvist 1, L O Frøholm 1, R K Selander 1
PMCID: PMC2271914  PMID: 1397113

Abstract

Following the occurrence of a case of systemic meningococcal disease in a military camp in Norway, throat cultures and blood samples were collected from 33 healthy individuals belonging to the same troop as the patient (troop A) and from 29 individuals from a different troop (troop B) in the same camp. Serological studies showed that 91% of the recruits had bactericidal antibodies against the disease-causing strain. The isolates of Neisseria meningitidis recovered from the throat cultures were serogrouped, serotyped, and assigned to a clone on the basis of an analysis of the electrophoretic mobilities of 14 metabolic enzymes. None of the 23 carriers in troop A harboured the clone responsible for the case of disease, but 6 carried isolates of the same electrophoretic type, ET-7, which was not identified in any of the 19 carriers of troop B. Individuals in troop A were resampled 2 and 17 weeks after the meningococcal disease episode. Five of the carriers had acquired different clones and one of them changed clone twice in that period. Four of the six newly acquired clones had previously been identified in other carriers of troop A, demonstrating transmission of clones among individuals living and working in close proximity.

Full text

PDF
250

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beam W. E., Jr, Newberg N. R., Devine L. F., Pierce W. E., Davies J. A. The effect of rifampin on the nasopharyngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in a military population. J Infect Dis. 1971 Jul;124(1):39–46. doi: 10.1093/infdis/124.1.39. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Broome C. V. The carrier state: Neisseria meningitidis. J Antimicrob Chemother. 1986 Jul;18 (Suppl A):25–34. doi: 10.1093/jac/18.supplement_a.25. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cartwright K. A., Stuart J. M., Jones D. M., Noah N. D. The Stonehouse survey: nasopharyngeal carriage of meningococci and Neisseria lactamica. Epidemiol Infect. 1987 Dec;99(3):591–601. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800066449. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cartwright K. A., Stuart J. M., Robinson P. M. Meningococcal carriage in close contacts of cases. Epidemiol Infect. 1991 Feb;106(1):133–141. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800056491. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Caugant D. A., Bøvre K., Gaustad P., Bryn K., Holten E., Høiby E. A., Frøholm L. O. Multilocus genotypes determined by enzyme electrophoresis of Neisseria meningitidis isolated from patients with systemic disease and from healthy carriers. J Gen Microbiol. 1986 Mar;132(3):641–652. doi: 10.1099/00221287-132-3-641. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Caugant D. A., Frøholm L. O., Bøvre K., Holten E., Frasch C. E., Mocca L. F., Zollinger W. D., Selander R. K. Intercontinental spread of a genetically distinctive complex of clones of Neisseria meningitidis causing epidemic disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jul;83(13):4927–4931. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.13.4927. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Caugant D. A., Kristiansen B. E., Frøholm L. O., Bøvre K., Selander R. K. Clonal diversity of Neisseria meningitidis from a population of asymptomatic carriers. Infect Immun. 1988 Aug;56(8):2060–2068. doi: 10.1128/iai.56.8.2060-2068.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Caugant D. A., Mocca L. F., Frasch C. E., Frøholm L. O., Zollinger W. D., Selander R. K. Genetic structure of Neisseria meningitidis populations in relation to serogroup, serotype, and outer membrane protein pattern. J Bacteriol. 1987 Jun;169(6):2781–2792. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.6.2781-2792.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Cooke R. P., Riordan T., Jones D. M., Painter M. J. Secondary cases of meningococcal infection among close family and household contacts in England and Wales, 1984-7. BMJ. 1989 Mar 4;298(6673):555–558. doi: 10.1136/bmj.298.6673.555. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. De Wals P., Gilquin C., De Maeyer S., Bouckaert A., Noel A., Lechat M. F., Lafontaine A. Longitudinal study of asymptomatic meningococcal carriage in two Belgian populations of schoolchildren. J Infect. 1983 Mar;6(2):147–156. doi: 10.1016/s0163-4453(83)92756-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Griffiss J. M. Epidemic meningococcal disease: synthesis of a hypothetical immunoepidemiologic model. Rev Infect Dis. 1982 Jan-Feb;4(1):159–172. doi: 10.1093/clinids/4.1.159. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Harthug S., Rosenqvist E., Høiby E. A., Gedde-Dahl T. W., Frøholm L. O. Antibody response in group B meningococcal disease determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with serotype 15 outer membrane antigen. J Clin Microbiol. 1986 Dec;24(6):947–953. doi: 10.1128/jcm.24.6.947-953.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Holten E., Vaage L. Carriers of meningococci among Norwegian naval recruits. Scand J Infect Dis. 1971;3(2):135–140. doi: 10.3109/inf.1971.3.issue-2.07. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Høiby E. A., Rosenqvist E., Frøholm L. O., Bjune G., Feiring B., Nøkleby H., Rønnild E. Bactericidal antibodies after vaccination with the Norwegian meningococcal serogroup B outer membrane vesicle vaccine: a brief survey. NIPH Ann. 1991 Dec;14(2):147–156. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Olcén P., Kjellander J., Danielsson D., Lindquist B. L. Epidemiology of Neisseria meningitidis; prevalence and symptoms from the upper respiratory tract in family members to patients with meningococcal disease. Scand J Infect Dis. 1981;13(2):105–109. doi: 10.3109/inf.1981.13.issue-2.05. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Pether J. V., Lightfoot N. F., Scott R. J., Morgan J., Steele-Perkins A. P., Sheard S. C. Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis: investigations in a military establishment. Epidemiol Infect. 1988 Aug;101(1):21–42. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800029198. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Rodbard D., McClean S. W. Automated computer analysis for enzyme-multiplied immunological techniques. Clin Chem. 1977 Jan;23(1):112–115. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Rosenqvist E., Harthug S., Frøholm L. O., Høiby E. A., Bøvre K., Zollinger W. D. Antibody responses to serogroup B meningococcal outer membrane antigens after vaccination and infection. J Clin Microbiol. 1988 Aug;26(8):1543–1548. doi: 10.1128/jcm.26.8.1543-1548.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Rosenqvist E., Høiby E. A., Bjune G., Bryn K., Closs O., Feiring B., Klem A., Nøkleby H., Frølm L. O. Human antibody responses after vaccination with the Norwegian group B meningococcal outer membrane vesicle vaccine: results from ELISA studies. NIPH Ann. 1991 Dec;14(2):169–181. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Sandven P., Solberg O., Odegaard K., Myhre G. Improved medium for the transportation of gonococcal specimens. Acta Pathol Microbiol Immunol Scand B. 1982 Feb;90(1):73–77. doi: 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1982.tb00083.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Selander R. K., Caugant D. A., Ochman H., Musser J. M., Gilmour M. N., Whittam T. S. Methods of multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for bacterial population genetics and systematics. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1986 May;51(5):873–884. doi: 10.1128/aem.51.5.873-884.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Stuart J. M., Cartwright K. A., Robinson P. M., Noah N. D. Does eradication of meningococcal carriage in household contacts prevent secondary cases of meningococcal disease? BMJ. 1989 Mar 4;298(6673):569–570. doi: 10.1136/bmj.298.6673.569. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Stuart J. M., Cartwright K. A., Robinson P. M., Noah N. D. Effect of smoking on meningococcal carriage. Lancet. 1989 Sep 23;2(8665):723–725. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(89)90781-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Wedege E., Høiby E. A., Rosenqvist E., Frøholm L. O. Serotyping and subtyping of Neisseria meningitidis isolates by co-agglutination, dot-blotting and ELISA. J Med Microbiol. 1990 Mar;31(3):195–201. doi: 10.1099/00222615-31-3-195. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Epidemiology and Infection are provided here courtesy of Cambridge University Press

RESOURCES