Fig 3. Sequence type clonal complex profile of invasive disease-associated N. meningitidis isolates recovered in Republic of Ireland over a 19 epidemiological year (EY) period.

(a) Distribution of STcc among the 1121 genotyped isolates representing 30.8% of all laboratory confirmed cases of IMD diagnosed in Republic of Ireland between EY1996/1997 and EY2014/2015. (b) Genotypic diversity of IMD-associated menB isolates (n = 854) presented for each EY as the proportion of menB cases diagnosed that were analysed, the number of STcc identified (richness; R), the Gini-Simpson diversity (Ds) index, Shannon entropy (H’), Pielou’s Evenness (Eh) index and clonal diversity (CD) index calculated for each EY. An overall increase in menB isolate diversity as determined by STcc defined by increasing Ds, H’, Eh and CD indices was observed over the study period.