Scientific Reports (Jul 2019)

Outbreak strain characterisation and pharyngeal carriage detection following a protracted group B meningococcal outbreak in adolescents in South-West England

  • Stephen A. Clark,
  • Jay Lucidarme,
  • Georgina Angel,
  • Aiswarya Lekshmi,
  • Begonia Morales-Aza,
  • Laura Willerton,
  • Helen Campbell,
  • Steve J. Gray,
  • Shamez N. Ladhani,
  • Mike Wade,
  • Mary Ramsay,
  • Julie Yates,
  • Adam Finn,
  • Ray Borrow

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46483-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Between April 2016 and September 2017, four cases of group B meningococcal disease were reported among sixth-form college students in Bristol, UK. Culture and non-culture whole genome sequencing was utilised and demonstrated that the four genomes of the responsible ST-41 strains clustered closely on a sub-lineage of ST-41/44 clonal complex. The outbreak resulted in two fatalities. A distinct social group associated with one of the cases was selected for vaccination with 4CMenB and pharyngeal swabbing. In vitro culturing, multiple real-time PCR assays (sodC, ctrA and siaD B ) and a PorA PCR-sequencing assay were used to detect meningococcal colonisation and a carriage rate of 32.6% was observed. Furthermore, a high proportion of the pharyngeal swabs (78.3%) yielded a Factor H-Binding Protein (fHbp) nucleotide allele suggesting that the antigenic gene is prevalent among non-meningococcal flora, most likely Neisseria commensals. This may have implications for fHbp as a vaccine antigen should it be shown to influence bacterial colonisation.