Connect
MJA
MJA

Rising incidence of invasive meningococcal disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W in Victoria

Katherine A Bond, Kerrie Stevens, Dieter Bulach, Kylie Carville, Katherine S Ong and Benjamin P Howden
Med J Aust 2016; 204 (7): . || doi: 10.5694/mja15.01222
Published online: 18 April 2016

Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) caused by Neisseria meningitidis is one of the most rapidly progressive sepsis syndromes, often resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Since the introduction of meningococcal C conjugate vaccine in 2003, IMD in Victoria has decreased from 2.5/100 000 to 0.6/100 000 population.1 Epidemiological typing of N. meningitidis isolates is by serogroup, multilocus sequence typing and finetyping.


  • 1 Microbiological Diagnostic Unit, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC
  • 2 Austin Health, Melbourne, VIC
  • 3 Department of Health and Human Services, Melbourne, VIC


Correspondence: katherinebond@hotmail.com

Acknowledgements: 

The Microbiological Diagnostic Unit is funded as a public health laboratory by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Australian Government Department of Health. National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System [website]. http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/source/cda-index.cfm
  • 2. Abad R, Lopez EL, Debbag R, Vazquez JA. Serogroup W meningococcal disease: global spread and current effect on the Southern Cone in Latin America. Epidemiol Infect 2014; 142: 2461-2470.
  • 3. Ladhani SN, Beebeejaun K, Lucidarme J, et al. Increase in endemic Neisseria meningitidis capsular group W sequence type 11 complex associated with severe invasive disease in England and Wales. Clin Infect Dis 2015; 60: 578-585.
  • 4. Campbell H, Saliba V, Borrow R, et al. Targeted vaccination of teenagers following continued rapid endemic expansion of a single meningococcal group W clone (sequence type 11 clonal complex), United Kingdom 2015. Eurosurveillance 2015; 20: doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES2015.20.28.21188.

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.