Abstract
Comprehensive practical guidelines for the control of large-scale epidemic meningococcal disease were updated in 1998 by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1). The guidance in this chapter is designed to assist in the management of the smaller-scale outbreaks or clusters, particularly in the educational setting (see Note 1). It focuses on countries, especially in Europe or North America, that are less prone to major epidemics and will normally have an adequately resourced public-health capacity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
World Health Organization (1998) Control of Epidemic Meningococcal Disease: WHO Practical Guidelines. World Health Organization Geneva.
Begg N. (1995) Outbreak management, in Meningococcal Disease (Cartwright K. A. V., ed.), John Wiley and Sons Chichester, UK, pp. 285–305.
Thalanany M. (1997) The management of clusters of meningococcal disease: survey of 35 European countries, in Surveillance of Bacterial Meningitis in Europe 1996 (Connolly M. and Noah N., eds.). Kings College London, pp. 34–40.
PHLS Meningococcal Infections Working Party and Public Health Medicine Environmental Group (1995) Control of meningococcal disease: guidance for consultants in communicable disease control. Commun. Dis. Rep. Rev. 5,R189–R194.
Stuart J. M., Monk P. N., Lewis D. A., Constantine C., Kaczmarski E. B., and Cartwright K. A. V. on behalf of the PHLS Meningococcus Working Group and Public Health Medicine Environmental Group (1997) Management of clusters of meningococcal disease. Commun. Dis. Rep. Rev. 7, R3–R5.
Canadian Consensus Conference on Meningococcal Disease (1994) Guidelines for control of meningococcal disease (February 1993). Can. Comm. Dis. Rep. 20, 17–27.
Patel M. S., Collignon P. J., Watson C. R., Condon R. J., Doherty R. R., Merianos A., and Stewart G. J. (1997) New guidelines for management and prevention of meningococcal disease in Australia. Med. J. Aust. 166, 598–601.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1997) Control and prevention of meningococcal disease and control and prevention of serogroup C meningococcal disease: evaluation and management of suspected outbreaks. MMWR 46, 1–21.
Olivares R. and Hubert B. (1992) Clusters of meningococcal disease in France (1987-1988). Eur. J. Epidemiol. 8, 737–742.
Hastings L., Stuart J., Andrews N., and Begg N. (1997) A retrospective survey of clusters of meningococcal disease in England and Wales, 1993-1995: estimated risks of further cases in household and educational settings. Commun. Dis. Rep. Rev. 7, R195–R200.
De Wals P., Hertoghe L., Borlee-Grimee I., De Maeyer-Cleempoel S., Reginster-Haneuse G., Dachy A., Bouckaert A., and Lechat M. F. (1981) Meningococcal disease in Belgium. Secondary attack rate among household, day-care nursery and pre-elementary school contacts. J. Infect. 3, 53–61.
Meningococcal Disease Surveillance Group (1976) Analysis of endemic meningococcal disease by serogroup and evaluation of chemoprophylaxis. J. Infect. Dis. 134, 201–204.
Zangwill K. M., Schuchat A., Riedo F. X., Pinner R. W., Koo D. T., Reeves M. W., and Wenger J. D. (1997) School-based clusters of meningococcal disease in the United States. Descriptive epidemiology and a case-control analysis. JAMA 277, 389–395.
Noah N. and Henderson B. (1999) Surveillance of bacterial meningitis in Europe 1997/8. Public Health Laboratory Service London.
Imrey P. B., Jackson L. A., Ludwinski P. H., England A. C. I., Fella G. A., Fox B. C., Isdale L. B., Reeves M. W., and Wenger J. D. (1996) Outbreak of serogroup C meningococcal disease associated with campus bar patronage. Am. J. Epidemiol. 143, 624–630.
Koh Y. M., Barnes G. H., Kaczmarski E., and Stuart J. M. (1998) Outbreak of meningococcal disease linked to a sports club. Lancet 352, 706–707.
Irwin D. J., Miller J. M., Milner P. C., Patterson T., Richards R. G., Williams D. A., Insley C. A., and Stuart J. M. (1997) Community immunization programme in response to an outbreak of invasive Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C infection in the Trent region of England 1995-1996. J. Public Health Med. 19, 162–170.
Jacobson J. A., Chester T. J., and Fraser D. W. (1977) An epidemic of disease due to serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis in Alabama: report of an investigation and community-wide prophylaxis with a sulfonamide. J. Infect. Dis. 136,104–108.
Kuhns D. M., Nelson C. T., Feldman H. A., and Kuhn L. R. (1943) The prophylactic value of sulfadiazine in the control of Meningococcic meningitis. JAMA 123, 335–339.
Gilmore A., Jones G., Barker R. M., Soltanpoor N., and Stuart J. (1999) Meningococcal disease at the University of Southampton. Epidemiol. Infect. 123,185–192.
Deal W. B. and Sanders E. (1969) Efficacy of rifampicin in treatment of menin-gococcal carriers. N. Engl. J. Med. 281, 641–645.
Cuevas L. E., Kazembe P., and Mughogho G. K. (1995) Eradication of nasopha-ryngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in children and adults in rural Africa: a comparison of Ciprofloxacin and Rifampicin. J. Infect. Dis. 171, 728–731.
Schwartz B., Al-Ruwais A., A’Ashi J., Broome C. V., Al-Tobaiqi A., Fontaine R. E., et al. (1988) Comparative efficacy of ceftriaxone and rifampicin in eradicating pharyngeal carriage of group A Neisseria meningitidis. Lancet 1239–1242.
Jackson L. A., Alexander E. R., Debolt C. A., Swenson P. D. B. J., McDowell M. G., Reeves M. W., and Wenger J. D. (1996) Evaluation of the use of mass chemoprophylaxis during a school outbreak of enzyme type 5 serogroup B men-ingococcal disease. Pediatr. Infect. Dis. J. 15, 992–998.
Gold R., Goldschneider I., Lepow M. L., Draper T. F., and Randolph M. (1978) Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria lactamica in infants and children. J. Infect. Dis. 137, 112–121.
Kristiansen B.-E. and Knapp A.-B. (1996) Secondary prevention of meningo-coccal disease:high risk contacts should be given chemoprophylaxis and preventive treatment with penicillin. BMJ 312, 591–592.
Jones D. M. (1996) Secondary prevention of meningococcal disease. BMJ 312, 1537.
Jones D. M. (1987) Meningococcal vaccines. PHLS Microbiol. Dig. 4, 23–24.
Round A. and Palmer S. (1999) Should we be doing more to prevent Group C meningococcal infection in school age children? How can we decide? J. Public Health Med. 21, 8–13.
Ardern K., Bowler S., Hussey R. M., and Regan C. M. (1999) Managing meningococcal disease case clusters: art or science? J. Epidemiol. Com. Health 53, 565–571.
Shehab S., Keller N., Barkay A., Leitner L., Leventhal A., and Block C. (1998) Failure of mass antibiotic prophylaxis to control a prolonged outbreak of meningococcal disease in an Israeli village. Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 17,749–753.
Smith I., Lehmann A. K., Hoiby E. A., and Halstensen A. I. (1999) Follow up of meningococcal disease cases in Western Norway. European Monitoring Group on Meningococci. Abstracts of 5th Meeting, 123 (Abstract National Meningococcal Reference Laboratory Athens, Greece).
Barker R. M., Shakespeare R. M., Mortimore A. J., Allen N. A., Solomon C. L., and Stuart J. M. (1999) Practical guidelines for responding to an outbreak of meningococcal disease among university students based on experience in Southampton. Commun. Dis. Public Health 2, 168.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Stuart, J.M. (2001). Managing Outbreaks. In: Walker, J.M., Pollard, A.J., Maiden, M.C.J. (eds) Meningococcal Disease. Methods in Molecular Medicine™, vol 67. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-149-3:257
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-149-3:257
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-849-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-149-7
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols