Abstract
Neisseria meningitidis, etiological factor of invasive meningococcal disease, is a human commensal that colonizes the nasopharynx. Colonization is usually asymptomatic, but it is a prerequisite for disease. Asymptomatic carriers are the major source of infection. In the present study, a survey of N. meningitidis carriage was conducted between January and March 2013 in a military unit in Poland. Single-time throat culture samples were collected from professional 559 soldiers (302 unvaccinated vs. 257 vaccinated individuals with the quadrivalent conjugate vaccine AC YW-135). Bacterial identification was performed with classic microbiological methods (culture, incubation, identification). Non-culture method (PCR) was used for confirmation of detected strains of N. meningitidis and determination of serogroups. We found 29 carriers in the group of unvaccinated soldiers (9.6 % of examined individuals) whereas among vaccinated soldiers only 3 persons were carriers of N. meningitidis (1.2 %). The most frequently identified serogroups among the carriers serving in the same military facility were serogroup B (28 %), followed by Y (25 %), and C (22 %). In conclusion, the initiation of mass vaccination with the quadrivalent conjugate vaccine ACYW-135 in the military environment seems an effective method of suppressing N. meningitidis carriage.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Commander of 25th Air Cavalry Brigade from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland for permission to carry out this study and to the soldiers of this military unit for their participation in examination. The paper was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Subject No 296/213, Military Institute of Medicine in Warsaw, Poland).
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The authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this article.
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Korzeniewski, K. et al. (2014). Effectiveness of Immunoprophylaxis in Suppressing Carriage of Neisseria Meningitidis in the Military Environment. In: Pokorski, M. (eds) Respiratory Virology and Immunogenicity. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology(), vol 836. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/5584_2014_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/5584_2014_22
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