Outbreak of Neisseria meningitidis, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Gregory J Tyrrell,Linda Chui,Nicholas Chang,Robert P Rennie,The Edmonton Meningococcal Study Group ,James A Talbot,Marcia Johnson

doi:10.3201/eid0805.010337

Abstract

From December 1999 to April 2001, the greater Edmonton region had 61 cases of invasive meningococcal infection, two fatal. The outbreak was due to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C, electrophoretic type 15, serotype 2a. Analysis of the strains showed that 50 of 56 culture-confirmed cases were due to a single clone and close relatives of this clone. This strain had not been previously identified in the province of Alberta dating back to January 1997

Highlights

From December 1999 to April 2001, the greater Edmonton region had 61 cases of invasive meningococcal infection, two fatal
We report an outbreak of a serogroup C clone of N. meningitidis in the Edmonton region of Alberta, Canada; the serogroup had a unique restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) pattern as determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)
Age breakdown showed that 10 (17.9%) of 56 confirmed serogroup C strains were in the birth- to 1-year age group (Table)

Summary

Introduction

From December 1999 to April 2001, the greater Edmonton region had 61 cases of invasive meningococcal infection, two fatal. Neisseria meningitidis causes outbreaks of disease resulting in severe illness and death. We report an outbreak of a serogroup C clone of N. meningitidis in the Edmonton region of Alberta, Canada; the serogroup had a unique restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) pattern as determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). From January 1997 to November 1999 (35 months), this region had 13 cases of culture-confirmed invasive N. meningitidis disease (5 from blood, 6 from cerebrospinal fluid [CSF], and 2 from joints) (Figure 1).

Results

Conclusion