Τίτλος:
Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria lactamica among ethnic
Greek school children from Russian immigrant families in Athens
Γλώσσες Τεκμηρίου:
Αγγλικά
Περίληψη:
During February and March 1995, a survey of meningococcal carriage in
625 school children was carried out in a suburb of Athens in which there
was a large number of ethnic Greeks who had immigrated from Russia
beginning in the early 1990s. The objectives of the study were: (1) to
determine if factors associated with carriage of meningococci observed
in a previous study of creek school children were similar for the
immigrant population I (2) to compare phenotypic characteristics of
meningococci from the immigrant population with those isolated from
children in Athens. Overall isolation rate for meningococci was 82/625
(13.1%,), significantly higher than that found for school children in
Athens (5.8%) during the winter of 1990-1991 (5.8%) (chi(2) = 25.98, P
= 0.0000003). By univariate analysis, carriage was not associated with
sex, number of individuals per household, blood group, secretor status,
socioeconomic level or maternal smoking; however, it was associated with
fat hers’ smoking. The high proportion of men who smoked compared with
the low proportion of women smokers might contribute to this finding.
The main serogroup of meningococci isolated from this population was A
(28%). While serogroup A appears to be more prevalent among Russian and
Kurdish immigrants (14%) than among Greek school children or military
recruits (4%), there has not been an increase in group A meningococcal
disease in Greece. The isolation rate for N. lactamica was high 105/625
(17.3%). A few of these strains bound some of the monoclonal antibodies
used for meningococcal serotyping and subtyping, and they are being
examined in greater detail. (C) 1999 Federation of European
Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights
reserved.
Συγγραφείς:
Kremastinou, J
Tzanakaki, G
Velonakis, E
Voyiatzi, A and
Nickolaou, A
Elton, RA
Weir, D
Blackwell, C
Περιοδικό:
FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology
Εκδότης:
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
Λέξεις-κλειδιά:
immigrant population; Neisseria meningitidis; Neisseria lactamica;
parental smoking; serogroup A
DOI:
10.1016/S0928-8244(98)00112-6
