The Establishment and Diversification of Epidemic-Associated Serogroup W Meningococcus in the African Meningitis Belt, 1994 to 2012

Abstract

Meningococcal disease (meningitis and bloodstream infections) threatens millions of people across the meningitis belt of sub-Saharan Africa. A vaccine introduced in 2010 protects against Africa’s then-most common cause of meningococcal disease, N. meningitidis serogroup A. However, other serogroups continue to cause epidemics in the region—including serogroup W. The rapid identification of strains that have been associated with prior outbreaks can improve the assessment of outbreak risk and enable timely preparation of public health responses, including vaccination. Phylogenetic analysis of newly sequenced serogroup W strains isolated from 1994 to 2012 identified two groups of strains linked to large epidemics in Burkina Faso, one being descended from a strain that caused an outbreak during the Hajj pilgrimage in 2000. We find that applying whole-genome sequencing to meningococcal disease surveillance collections improves the discrimination among strains, even within a single nation-wide epidemic, which can be used to better understand pathogen spread.

Whole genome typing of the recently emerged Canadian serogroup W Neisseria meningitidis sequence type 11 clonal complex isolates associated with invasive meningococcal disease

“…Older sub-lineages, countries (n, number of isolates, year of isolation): Canada (n = 1, 2003), Chile (n = 1, 1999), Czech Republic (n = 2, 1994, 1996), South Africa (n = 7, 2003, Sweden (n = 4, 1979-98), and UK (n = 10, 1975-2007. outbreak strain, while isolates from an earlier epidemic (2001 and 2002) were less closely related to the Hajj outbreak strain (Retchless et al, 2016).…”

Whole-Genome Sequencing for Characterization of Capsule Locus and Prediction of Serogroup of Invasive Meningococcal Isolates

“…Whole-genome sequencing. The genomes of N. meningitidis isolates used in this study were sequenced using either the Illumina (HiSeq2500 or MiSeq) or Pacific BioSciences (PacBio) technology, as described previously (19). Reads were trimmed using Cutadapt (version 1.8.1) software (20) to remove adapter sequences and bases with a quality score of ϽQ20 and assembled with the SPAdes (version 3.7) algorithm (21).…”

Whole genome sequencing of Neisseria meningitidis W isolates from the Czech Republic recovered in 1984 – 2017

“…South America, the UK, and France share another genetically different strain of N. meningitidis W cc11 [31]. The WGS method demonstrated the diversification of N. meningitidis W in the African meningitis belt during the period 1994 – 2012 [32]. The study isolates belonged to cc11 (83 out of 92) or cc175 (nine out of 93).…”