Carriage Rate and Effects of Vaccination after Outbreaks of Serogroup C Meningococcal Disease,Brazil, 2010 |
| |
| Authors: | Marco Aurelio Palazzi Sáfadi Telma Regina Marques Pinto Carvalhanas Ana Paula de Lemos Maria Cecilia Outeiro Gorla Maristela Salgado Lucila O Fukasawa Maria Gisele Gon?alves Fabio Higa Maria Cristina Cunto Brandileone Claudio Tavares Sacchi Ana Freitas Ribeiro Helena Keico Sato Lucia Ferro Bricks José Cassio de Moraes |
| |
| Institution: | Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa, São Paulo, Brazil (M.A.P. Sáfadi, J.C. de Moraes);;Centro de Vigilância Epidemiológica Alexandre Vranjac, São Paulo (T.R.M.P. Carvalhanas, A.F. Ribeiro, H.K. Sato); ;Instituto Adolfo Lutz, São Paulo (A.P. de Lemos, M.C.O. Gorla, M. Salgado, M.G. Gonçalves, L.O. Fukasawa, F. Higa, M.C.C. Brandileone, C.T. Sacchi);;Sanofi Pasteur Vaccines, São Paulo (L.F. Bricks) |
| |
| Abstract: | During 2010, outbreaks of serogroup C meningococcal (MenC) disease occurred in 2 oil refineries in São Paulo State, Brazil, leading to mass vaccination of employees at 1 refinery with a meningococcal polysaccharide A/C vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of meningococci carriage among workers at both refineries and to investigate the effect of vaccination on and the risk factors for pharyngeal carriage of meningococci. Among the vaccinated and nonvaccinated workers, rates of overall meningococci carriage (21.4% and 21.6%, respectively) and of MenC carriage (6.3% and 4.9%, respectively) were similar. However, a MenC strain belonging to the sequence type103 complex predominated and was responsible for the increased incidence of meningococcal disease in Brazil. A low education level was associated with higher risk of meningococci carriage. Polysaccharide vaccination did not affect carriage or interrupt transmission of the epidemic strain. These findings will help inform future vaccination strategies. |
| |
| Keywords: | meningococcal carriage meningococcal vaccines meningococcus Neisseria meningitidis herd immunity bacteria vaccination Brazil transmission epidemic strain serogroup C |
|
|
