scholarly journals Current Epidemiology of Serogroup W Meningococcal Disease—United States, 2010–2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S7-S7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Soeters ◽  
Amy Blain ◽  
How-Yi Chang ◽  
Melissa Whaley ◽  
Jessica Macneil

Abstract Background Serogroup W (NmW) meningococcal disease is a rare but severe infection. Following an NmW outbreak after the Hajj in 2000, NmW disease, predominantly caused by sequence type (ST)-11 clonal complex (cc), rapidly increased in South Africa, South America, and the UK. We describe NmW meningococcal disease epidemiology in the USA during 2010–2015. Methods Data were collected from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, Active Bacterial Core surveillance, and state health departments. Isolates were serogrouped via slide agglutination and real-time polymerase chain reaction. For cases lacking a serogroup result at CDC, the state result was used. Case-fatality ratios (CFR) were calculated using the proportion of cases with known outcomes as the denominator. cc and ST were determined using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Results From 2010 to 2015, 3,504 meningococcal disease cases were reported to CDC; 2,976 (85%) had a serogroup result, of which 290 (10%) were NmW. Although the number of NmW cases reported annually remained fairly stable (range: 40–57), the total number of reported meningococcal disease cases decreased by 60%, and the proportion of cases due to NmW increased from 6% (42/830) in 2010 to 12% (40/332) in 2015. The majority of NmW cases were reported from five states: Florida (n = 106), California (n = 31), New York (n = 25), Georgia (n = 19), and Oregon (n = 11). Half of people with NmW disease were male, 185 (64%) were white, and 84 (29%) were Hispanic. The median age was 51 years (interquartile range: 26–70). Overall, 20% (52/259) of NmW cases were fatal, compared with CFRs for serogroups B (15%), Y (18%), or C (24%). NmW CFR was highest among adults aged 50–59 years (38%). MLST results were available for 119 (41%) of NmW cases: 76 (64%) were cc11, 40 (34%) were cc22, and 1 each were cc23, cc32, and an unassigned cc. cc appeared to be geographically associated: cc11 was concentrated in Florida and Georgia, while cc22 predominated on the West coast. Within cc11, the majority of isolates (86%) were ST-11, and within cc22 the majority (73%) were ST-22. Conclusion A rapid increase in NmW disease has not been observed in the USA. Most NmW cases were reported in a limited number of states, with geographic differences in clonal complex. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

Popular Music ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 107-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toru Mitsui

The record and tape sales figures of the Japanese record industry have exceeded those of the industries of all other capitalist nations, except the USA, since the mid-seventies. In 1980, Japan's share amounted to 13.9 per cent of all sales in the capitalist sphere according to surveys by Billboard. The USA had 35.8 per cent, West Germany 11.6 per cent, the UK 11.6 per cent and France 7.3 per cent (Kawabata 1977, p. 22; 1982, pp. 91, 199). The output of foreign records, recorded and pressed by Japanese companies, to foreign records, pressed by Japanese companies from masters recorded by foreign companies primarily for their own consumers, has been about three to two. A good many of these foreign records are of American and European popular music, and in this field one can perceive a new and interesting tendency to promote and succeed with artists who are or were less successful in their own country. The tendency, whose background I am going to discuss here, started in the mid-seventies; one of the early examples is provided by Kiss, a New York group, which was shrewdly promoted and achieved wide popularity in Japan before succeeding nationwide in America.


Author(s):  
Gerard C. Millen ◽  
Roland Arnold ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Cazier ◽  
Helen Curley ◽  
Richard G. Feltbower ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Children with cancer are frequently immunocompromised. While children are generally thought to be at less risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults, comprehensive population-based evidence for the risk in children with cancer is unavailable. We aimed to produce evidence of the incidence and outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 in children with cancer attending all hospitals treating this population across the UK. Methods Retrospective and prospective observational study of all children in the UK under 16 diagnosed with cancer through data collection from all hospitals providing cancer care to this population. Eligible patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The primary end-point was death, discharge or end of active care for COVID-19 for those remaining in hospital. Results Between 12 March 2020 and 31 July 2020, 54 cases were identified: 15 (28%) were asymptomatic, 34 (63%) had mild infections and 5 (10%) moderate, severe or critical infections. No patients died and only three patients required intensive care support due to COVID-19. Estimated incidence of hospital identified SARS-CoV-2 infection in children with cancer under 16 was 3%. Conclusions Children with cancer with SARS-CoV-2 infection do not appear at increased risk of severe infection compared to the general paediatric population. This is reassuring and supports the continued delivery of standard treatment.


2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danièlle A. Gunn-Moore ◽  
Theresa M. McCann ◽  
Nicki Reed ◽  
Kerry E. Simpson ◽  
Bryn Tennant

Faecal samples from 111 cats with diarrhoea that were living in the UK were submitted for the assessment of Tritrichomonas foetus infection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sixteen (14.4%) samples were found to be positive. In agreement with studies from the USA, infected cats were predominantly of a year of age or less and of a pedigree breed, with Siamese and Bengal cats specifically over-represented in this population.


Author(s):  
Uta A. Balbier

This chapter explores the Billy Graham revival campaigns in Washington, London, New York, and Berlin in the 1950s as expressions of a transnational religious revival that took place simultaneously in the USA, Germany, and the UK. During this short-lived revival, discourses around Christianity, anti-Communism, democracy, and the Free World blended, produced new forms of civil religious identities, and seemed to briefly challenge secularization processes. The chapter explores the mindset of political and religious leaders who supported the Billy Graham Crusades as well as the staging of events as important performances in the transnational culture of the Cold War. It argues that despite obvious differences in the religious landscapes on both sides of the Atlantic regarding church attendance and the role of religion in political discourse, there still existed significant similarities. These can only be explained when taking transnational phenomena such as Cold War culture or secularization processes into consideration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 220 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. S190-S197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yibayiri Osee Sanogo ◽  
Ibréhima Guindo ◽  
Seydou Diarra ◽  
Adam C Retchless ◽  
Mahamadou Abdou ◽  
...  

AbstractIn 2016, Mali reported a bacterial meningitis outbreak consisting of 39 suspected cases between epidemiologic weeks 9 and 17 with 15% case fatality ratio in the health district of Ouéléssebougou, 80 kilometers from the capital Bamako. Cerebrospinal fluid specimens from 29 cases were tested by culture and real-time polymerase chain reaction; 22 (76%) were positive for bacterial meningitis pathogens, 16 (73%) of which were Neisseria meningitidis (Nm). Of the Nm-positive specimens, 14 (88%) were N meningitidis serogroup C (NmC), 1 was NmW, and 1 was nongroupable. Eight NmC isolates recovered by culture from the outbreak were characterized using whole genome sequencing. Genomics analysis revealed that all 8 isolates belonged to a new sequence type (ST) 12446 of clonal complex 10217 that formed a distinct clade genetically similar to ST-10217, a NmC strain that recently caused large epidemics of meningitis in Niger and Nigeria. The emergence of a new ST of NmC associated with an outbreak in the African meningitis belt further highlights the need for continued molecular surveillance in the region.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (45) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Lucidarme ◽  
Kevin J Scott ◽  
Roisin Ure ◽  
Andrew Smith ◽  
Diane Lindsay ◽  
...  

The 23rd World Scout Jamboree in 2015 took place in Japan and included over 33,000 scouts from 162 countries. Within nine days of the meeting ending, six cases of laboratory-confirmed invasive serogroup W meningococcal disease occurred among scouts and their close contacts in Scotland and Sweden. The isolates responsible were identical to one-another by routine typing and, where known (4 isolates), belonged to the ST-11 clonal complex (cc11) which is associated with large outbreaks and high case fatality rates. Recent studies have demonstrated the need for high-resolution genomic typing schemes to assign serogroup W cc11 isolates to several distinct strains circulating globally over the past two decades. Here we used such schemes to confirm that the Jamboree-associated cases constituted a genuine outbreak and that this was due to a novel and rapidly expanding strain descended from the strain that has recently expanded in South America and the United Kingdom. We also identify the genetic differences that define the novel strain including four point mutations and three putative recombination events involving the horizontal exchange of 17, six and two genes, respectively. Noteworthy outcomes of these changes were antigenic shifts and the disruption of a transcriptional regulator.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam J Knol ◽  
Wilhelmina LM Ruijs ◽  
Laura Antonise-Kamp ◽  
Hester E de Melker ◽  
Arie van der Ende

The annual incidence rate of serogroup W invasive meningococcal disease in the Netherlands increased from < 0.05/100,000 (n < 10) before 2015 to 0.5/100,000 (n = 80) in 2017. Most isolates (94%) belong to clonal complex 11. The incidence rate is highest among  < 5 year-olds and 15–24 year-olds. The case fatality rate was 12% (17/138) in 2015–2017. From May 2018, MenACWY vaccination replaces MenC vaccination at age 14 months and from October 2018, 13–14 year-olds are offered MenACWY vaccination.


Author(s):  
Walter Langel

AbstractPredictions about the further development of the Corona pandemic are of great public interest but many approaches demand a large number of country specific parameters and are not easily transferable. A special interest of simulations on the pandemic is to trace the effect of politics for reducing the virus spread, since these measures have had an enormous impact on economy and daily life.Here a simple yet powerful algorithm is introduced for fitting the infection numbers by simple analytic functions. This way, the increase of the case numbers in periods with different regulations can be distinguished, and by extrapolating the fit functions, a forecast for the maximum numbers and time scales are possible. The effect of the restraints such as lock down are demonstrated by comparing the resulting infection history with the likely unconstrained virus spread, and it is shown that a delay of 1-4 weeks before imposing measures aiming at social distancing could have led to a complete infection of the respective populations.The approach is simply transferable to many different states. Here data from six E.U. countries, the UK, Russia, two Asian countries, the USA and ten states inside the USA with significant case numbers are analyzed, and striking qualitative similarities are found.Keywords: Covid-19, forecast, analytic fit, France, Germany, Italy, Spain South Korea, New York, Washington, Florida, Michigan, Poland, Sweden, USA, Pennsylvania, China, Russia, UK, California, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina.


1995 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Upton ◽  
P. E. Carter ◽  
M. Morgana ◽  
G. F. Edwards ◽  
T. H. Pennington

SummaryWe have used molecular techniques to characterize 51 group A streptococci from Scotland and 17 ‘serious disease’ isolates from other countries, in order to establish the clonal structure of invasiveStreptococcus pyogenesstrains circulating between 1986 and 1993. Strains were grouped by restriction endonuclease analysis, pulsed field gel electrophoresis and ribotyping patterns, and were examined for the presence of alleles of thespeAgene by polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequence analysis. Serious and fatal infections in Scotland were caused by several clones. One clone (9 of 51 strains) was M type 1 and possessed thespeAgene allele 2. This was the clone previously identified as causing severe infection in the USA. Another clone (5 of 51 strains) was M type 3 and hadspeAgene allele 3. In view of the clear association of more than one clone with severe, invasive and fatal infections, horizontal gene exchange between genotypes merits further investigation.


1975 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-259
Author(s):  
A. R. Kemal

The developed economies, except the USA and Canada, have each imple¬mented a Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) in order to encourage exports of the developing countries. Since the tariffs imposed on the imports from the developing countries are relatively small under the GSP, the developing countries have an advantage in the exports of commodities covered by the GSP., The GSPs. of different countries vary in product coverage, depth of tariff cuts', safeguard measures for the protection of domestic industry, and the rules of origin. For a •comparative analysis of the GSPs of different countries, an evaluation of the im¬pact of the overall GSP on the exports of the developing economies, and of sugges¬tions-for devising ways and means for expanding the exports of the developing countries, several committees were formed by the UNCTAD Secretariat. The Report under review is a collection of documents prepared by those committees, including document- Nos. TD/B/C-5.2 to TD/B/C-5.9. These documents are arranged under three heads, viz. General Report, Consideration of some inportant aspects of the GSP, and the Case Studies. The main issues discussed in these re¬ports are: Special measures in favour of the least developed countries; Effect of the GSP on the tariff advantages enjoyed by the African countries associated with the European Economic Community (EEC); Analysis of the rule of origin; and Effects of the GSP of the EEC countries, Japan and the UK on the export earnings of the beneficiary countries.


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