TY - JOUR T1 - Changes in Meningococcal Strains in the Era of a Serogroup C Vaccination Campaign: Trends and Evolution in Belgium during the Period 1997-2012. JF - PLoS One Y1 - 2015 A1 - Wesley Mattheus A1 - Hanquet, Germaine A1 - J-M Collard A1 - Vanhoof, Raymond A1 - Sophie Bertrand KW - ADOLESCENT KW - Adult KW - Belgium KW - Biological Evolution KW - Child KW - Child, Preschool KW - DNA, Bacterial KW - Female KW - Humans KW - Infant KW - Male KW - Meningococcal Infections KW - Meningococcal Vaccines KW - Multilocus Sequence Typing KW - Neisseria meningitidis, Serogroup C KW - Phenotype KW - Prognosis KW - Serogroup KW - Survival Rate KW - Time Factors KW - Vaccination KW - Young adult AB -

BACKGROUND: Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) is a major cause of bacterial meningitides and septicaemia. This study shows the results of the laboratory-based surveillance of IMD in Belgium over the period 1997-2012.

METHODS: The results are based on microbiological and molecular laboratory surveillance of 2997 clinical isolates of N. meningitides received by the Belgian Meningococcal Reference Centre (BMRC) over the period 1997-2012.

RESULTS: Serogroup B has always been a major cause of meningococcal disease in Belgium, with P3.4 as most frequent serotype till 2008, while an increase in non-serotypable strains has been observed in the last few years. Clonal complexes cc-41/44 and cc-269 are most frequently observed in serogroup B strains. In the late nineties, the incidence of serogroup C disease increased considerably and peaked in 2001, mainly associated with phenotypes C:2a:P1.5,2, C:2a:P1.5 and C:2a:P1.2 (ST-11/ET-37 clonal complex). The introduction of the meningococcal C conjugate vaccine has been followed by an 88% significant decrease in serogroup C disease from 2001 to 2004 nationally, yet sharper in Flanders (92%) compared to Wallonia (77%). Since 2008 a difference in incidence of serogroup C was observed in Flanders (0-0.1/100,000) versus Wallonia (0.1-0.3/100,000).

CONCLUSION: This study showed the change in epidemiology and strain population over a 16 years period spanning an exhaustive vaccination campaign and highlights the influence of regional vaccination policies with different cohorts sizes on short and long-term IMD incidences.

VL - 10 CP - 10 U1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26425857?dopt=Abstract M3 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0139615 ER -