Meningitis Serogroup W135 Outbreak, Burkina Faso, 2002

Abstract

In 2002, the largest epidemic of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W135 occurred in Burkina Faso. The highest attack rate was in children <5 years of age. We describe cases from 1 district and evaluate the performance of the Pastorex test, which had good sensitivity (84%) and specificity (89%) compared with culture or PCR.

Keywords

• Burkina Faso
• children
• epidemiology
• Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W135
• outbreak
• sensitivity