Carriage Rates and Serogroups ofNeisseria meningitidisamong Freshmen in a University Dormitory in Korea

Abstract

PurposeNeisseria meningitidis is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis in young adults. University students, especially those living in dormitories, have been known to be at increased risk of meningococcal disease. We performed a longitudinal study to determine the carriage rates of N. meningitidis and the changes thereof.Materials and MethodsWe recruited Inha University freshmen who were, at that time, admitted to a student dormitory. A pharyngeal swab was taken from all participant who were also asked to complete a questionnaire. This was repeated four weeks later.ResultsA total of 136 students were enrolled at the first culture. After four weeks, 128 students were enrolled, including 106 re-participants. The overall carriage rates changed from 11.8% to 14.1%. In analysis of the 106 re-participants, "visiting to pubs" was associated with carriage of N. meningitis for both the first (p=0.047) and second cultures (p=0.026). Serogroup C was found to be the most frequent serogroup (5 isolates), while 3 isolates were found from serogroup B. The most prevalent PorA types were P1.22,14-6 (4 isolates) and P1.19,15 (3 isolates). The DNA sequences of PorA VR2 were changed in 2 students during prolonged carriage.ConclusionThe meningococcal carriage rate among first year university students who resided in a dormitory did not significantly increase over 4-week interval between cultures, which is markedly different from those reported in Western studies. Close social contact appeared to be related with carriage. Our data also revealed diversity in PorA types, suggesting the possibility of rapid mutation of the PorA gene during the 4-week interval.

Characterization of Oropharyngeal Carriage Isolates ofNeisseria meningitidisin Healthy Korean Adolescents in 2015

“…The proportion of non-groupable isolates among carriage isolates was up to 88% in an immunized population (35). In our study, 42.9% of isolates were non-groupable, a figure comparable with those of previous carriage studies (182434). …”

“…The remarkable finding of this study is that serogroup B was the most prevalent, as has previously been reported in western countries (232425). However, the carriage rate was lower than in other reports (5611121314151617182324). Our observed carriage rate (3.4%) was much lower than expected on the basis of previous studies of adolescents (carriage rate, 10.4%–18.5%) (52324).…”

Meningococcal carriage in high-risk settings: A systematic review

“…Fifteen studies that sampled only university students met the inclusion criteria. Six studies were cross-sectional studies (Aliyu and Olayinka, 2017;Bali et al, 2017;Rizek et al, 2016;Rodrigues et al, 2015;Rodriguez et al, 2014;Tryfinopoulou et al, 2016;Takahashi et al, 2016), six were repeat cross-sectional studies with a nested cohort (either intentional or unintentional) (Ala'aldeen et al, 2011;Breakwell et al, 2018;Durey et al, 2012;McNamara et al, 2017b;Oldfield et al, 2017;Soeters et al, 2017), two were cohort studies (Bidmos et al, 2011;Gilca et al, 2013), and one was a randomized controlled trial investigating the impact of vaccination on carriage (Read et al, 2014). The majority of studies were conducted in the region of the Americas (n = 6) or the European region (n = 6), and no study was identified from the Eastern Mediterranean region.…”

“…Malaysia (Memish et al, 2017) prevalent capsular groups identified were C (46.3%), Y (21.1%), and B (1.5%), respectively, at baseline (Table 2). Seven studies assessed risk factors associated with increased carriage among university students, the methodology of which is detailed in Supplementary material Table S7 (Aliyu and Olayinka, 2017;Rodriguez et al, 2014;Tryfinopoulou et al, 2016;Breakwell et al, 2018;Durey et al, 2012;McNamara et al, 2017b;Soeters et al, 2017). Risk factors investigated included demographic data and social behaviours, such as age, sex, smoking, recent respiratory infections, and attending crowded social settings.…”

Patterns of structural and sequence variation within isotype lineages of the Neisseria meningitidis transferrin receptor system

“… 1987 ; Durey et al. 2012 ). Similar to other pathogenic and commensal organisms in this microenvironment, N. meningitidis is naturally competent and able to incorporate exogenous genetic material into its own genome but preferentially uptakes and incorporates DNA from related bacteria due to the presence of specific uptake sequences (Zhang et al.…”