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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 1998, p. 2465-2470, Vol. 36, No. 9
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Necessity of Molecular Techniques To Distinguish between Neisseria meningitidis Strains Isolated from Patients with Meningococcal Disease and from Their Healthy Contacts

Ulrich Vogel,1 Giovanna Morelli,2 Kerstin Zurth,2 Heike Claus,1 Eugen Kriener,3 Mark Achtman,2,* and Matthias Frosch1

Institut für Hygiene und Mikrobiologie, Universität Würzburg,1 and Gesundheitsamt im Landratsamts Würzburg,3 Würzburg, and Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Genetik, Berlin,2 Germany

Received 12 February 1998/Returned for modification 24 April 1998/Accepted 21 May 1998

Serogroup C strains of Neisseria meningitidis were isolated from a Germany patient with severe meningococcal disease after a trip to the Czech Republic. These strains (case isolates) were characterized by classical and molecular techniques, as were other strains (carrier isolates) isolated from healthy contacts. Five of 10 carrier isolates had switched off the expression of capsular polysaccharide, as demonstrated by a serogroup-specific PCR. The two case isolates were indistinguishable by multilocus sequence typing and belonged to the ET-37 complex. The carrier isolates belonged to four different sequence types, all unrelated to that of the case strains. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that the case isolates differed from reference ET-37 complex strains from the Czech Republic and Canada as well as from all the carrier isolates. The isolate from the patient's nasopharynx was indistinguishable from the blood isolate except for a 40,000-bp chromosomal deletion that had occurred during systemic spread.

* Corresponding author. Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Genetik, Ihnestr. 73, D-14195 Berlin, Germany. Phone: 49(30) 8413 1262. Fax: 49(30) 8413-1385. E-mail: achtman{at}mpimg-berlin-dahlem.mpg.de.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 1998, p. 2465-2470, Vol. 36, No. 9
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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Copyright © 1998 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.