Spread of Neisseria meningitidis Serogroup W Clone, China

Haijian Zhou¹

, Wei Liu¹, Li Xu, Lili Deng, Qiuyun Deng, Jiatong Zhuo, and Zhujun Shao

Author affiliations: National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People’s Republic of China (H. Zhou, L. Xu, Z. Shao); State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Beijing (H. Zhou, Z. Shao); Guangxi Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanning, People’s Republic of China (W. Liu, L. Deng, Q. Deng, J. Zhuo)

Abstract

During February 2011–June 2012, invasive infection with Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W was identified in 11 persons in southeastern China. All isolates tested had matching or near-matching pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns and belonged to multilocus sequence type 11. The epidemiologic investigation suggested recent transmission of this clonal complex in southeastern China.

Neisseria meningitidis is a major public health threat in many parts of the world, including China. Since 2003, most meningococcal diseases in China have been caused by N. meningitidis serogroups A and C; only 3 cases of serogroup W meningococcal disease were reported before 2011 (1,2). However, during February 2011–June 2012, an increase in invasive disease caused by serogroup W N. meningitidis (11 cases total) was seen in southeastern China. To determine if this serogroup is emerging in China, we analyzed strains from 6 of the 11 infected patients reported during 2011–2012, from 16 of their close contacts, and from 3 serogroup W patients reported during 2006–2008.

The Study

Meningococcal disease is reportable in China. N. meningitidis isolates, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and blood samples from persons with invasive disease are forwarded to the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for serogroup determination by slide agglutination and/or PCR. Strains are further characterized by use of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) after NheI restriction enzyme digestion (3).