Pharyngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in 2–19-year-old individuals in Uganda

In southern Uganda, only sporadic cases of serogroup A meningococcal disease have been reported since 2000. As part of an immunogenicity study of the tetravalent meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine, nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected twice, 4 weeks apart, from 2–19-year-old healthy individuals in Mbarara, Uganda. Only 15 (2.0%) of the 750 individuals carried meningococci asymptomatically. Most of the strains were non-serogroupable and none were serogroup A. However, two individuals carried a serogroup W135 strain, sequence type (ST)-11, similar to the clone that was responsible for the epidemic in Burkina Faso in 2002. Our study further demonstrates the geographical spread of serogroup W135 ST-11 strain and thus the potential epidemic risk.

Keywords

Neisseria meningitidis, Meningococcal carriage, Serogroup W135, Uganda

Citation

Caugant, D. A., Fogg, C., Bajunirwe, F., Piola, P., Twesigye, R., Mutebi, F., ... & Guerin, P. J. (2006). Pharyngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in 2–19-year-old individuals in Uganda. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 100(12), 1159-1163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trstmh.2006.01.004

URI

https://nru.uncst.go.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/670

Collections

Medical and Health Sciences

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