Hospital-based surveillance of meningococcal meningitis in Salvador, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Cordeiro, Soraia Machado
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Neves, Alan B., Ribeiro, Cássio T., Petersen, Maya L., Gouveia, Edilane L., Ribeiro, Guilherme S., et al.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFBA
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.ufba.br/ri/handle/ri/14006
• topic: Meningococcal Disease; Meningitis; Neisseria; Meningitidis; Serogroup; Epidemiology; Brazil

This study aimed to describe the clinical, epidemiological and microbiological features of meningococcal meningitis in Salvador, Brazil. Between February 1996 and January 2001, a hospital based surveillance prospectively identified cases of culture-positive meningococcal meningitis. Demographic and clinical data were collected through interview and medical chart review. Antisera and monoclonal antibodies were used to determine the serogroup and serotype: serosubtype of the isolates, respectively. Surveillance identified a total of 408 cases of meningococcal meningitis, with a case fatality rate of 8% (32/397). The mean annual incidence for the 304 culture-positive cases residing in metropolitan Salvador was 1.71 cases per 100 000 population. Infants <1 year old presented the highest incidence (14.7 cases per 100 000 population). Of the 377 serogrouped isolates, 82%, 16%, 2% and 0.3% were serogroups B, C, W135 and Y, respectively. A single serotype:serosubtype (4,7:P1.19,15) accounted for 64% of all cases. Continued surveillance is necessary to characterise strains and to define future prevention and control strategies.