@article{3167163,
    title = "Meningococcal serogroup Y disease in Europe: Continuation of high
importance in some European regions in 2013",
    author = "Broeker, Michael and Emonet, Stephane and Fazio, Cecilia and Jacobsson, and Susanne and Koliou, Maria and Kuusi, Markku and Pace, David and Paragi, and Metka and Pysik, Alexander and Simoes, Maria Joao and Skoczynska, Anna and and Stefanelli, Paola and Toropainen, Maija and Taha, Muhamed-Kheir and and Tzanakaki, Georgina",
    journal = "Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics",
    year = "2015",
    volume = "11",
    number = "9",
    pages = "2281-2286",
    publisher = "Taylor and Francis Inc.",
    issn = "2164-5515, 2164-554X",
    doi = "10.1080/21645515.2015.1051276",
    keywords = "epidemiology; Europe; invasive meningococcal disease; meningococcal
serogroup Y; Neisseria meningitidis; IMD; Invasive meningococcal
disease; Men; meningococcal",
    abstract = "Neisseria meningitidis or meningococcus is divided into 12 distinct
serogroups of which A, B, C, W, X, and Y are medically most important
and cause health problems in different parts of the world. The
epidemiology of N. meningitidis is unpredictable over time and across
geographic regions. Globally, serogoup A has been prevalent in the
African meningitis belt whereas serogroup B and C have predominated in
Europe. In a paper published earlier in this journal(1), an increase in
serogroup Y invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in some European
countries was reported based on the epidemiological data for 2010, 2011
and 2012. Here, we report additional data from 30 European countries
indicating that high or increased serogroup Y disease levels have
continued in 2013 in certain regions of Europe. In the Western and
Central Europe, there were no major changes in the proportion of
serogroup Y IMD cases in 2013 compared to 2012. In the Scandinavian
countries, proportion of serogroup Y disease remained high, ranging from
26% to 51% in 2013. This was in contrast to Baltic, Eastern and most
Southern European countries, where the proportion of serogroup Y IMD was
low similarly to previous years. For the last 2 decades, the mean age of
patients affected by serogroup Y was 41 y for 7 countries from which
data was available and 50% of cases were in patients aged 45 to 88 y.
The age distribution of serogroup Y was bimodal and did not change
significantly despite the increase of the total number and the
proportion of serogroup Y IMD in some European regions."
}