The elusive meningococcal meningitis serogroup: a systematic review of serogroup B epidemiology

BMC Infectious Diseases

Research Article

Silva JD Luiz¹  Vanessa N Racloz² 

[1] Novartis Vaccines, 350 Massachusetts Avenue, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA;Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002, Basel, Switzerland;

关键词: Adenylate Kinase;    Meningococcal Disease;    Neisseria Meningitidis;    Clonal Complex;    Fumarate Hydratase;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2334-10-175

 received in 2009-09-15, accepted in 2010-06-17,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundInvasive meningococcal disease (IMD), is a widely distributed, complex human disease affecting all age categories. The causative agent, Neisseria meningitidis, is spread through aerosol respiratory droplets. 13 different serogroups have been identified, each with varying epidemiological features including prevalence, virulence, immunogenicity, geographical and temporal distribution. Although preventative measures are available for several of the serogroups, meningococcal disease caused by serogroup B is of particular interest due to the challenge it presents concerning vaccine development.MethodsA systematic review of peer reviewed studies and reports, the collection of data from national and international health resources, along with the analysis of the Multi Locus Sequence Typing database was carried out aimed at collecting information concerning serogroup B IMD and the epidemiology attached to it.ResultsA continuous output of related and novel STs occurring worldwide in terms of the hypervirulent clonal complexes was observed both in published studies and the MLST database in this case using the eburst software, which highlights the genetically diverse nature of serogroup B strains.ConclusionsWith the recent dominance of serogroup B IMD seen in many countries, along with the presence of antibiotic resistance, vaccine development needs to target areas of the bacterium which tackle this widespread and heterogeneous aspect of meningococcal meningitis disease.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Racloz and Luiz; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010