UKMenCar4: A cross-sectional survey of asymptomatic meningococcal carriage amongst UK adolescents at a period of low invasive meningococcal disease incidence
Bratcher, Holly;
Rodrigues, Charlene;
Finn, Adam;
Wootton, Mandy;
Cameron, Claire;
Smith, Andrew;
Heath, Paul;
Ladhani, Shamez;
Snape, Matthew;
Pollard, Andrew;
+6 more...Cunningham, Richard;
Borrow, Raymond;
Trotter, Caroline;
Gray, Stephen;
Maiden, Martin;
MacLennan, Jenny;
(2019)
UKMenCar4: A cross-sectional survey of asymptomatic meningococcal carriage amongst UK adolescents at a period of low invasive meningococcal disease incidence.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15362.2
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Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis , the meningococcus, is a prerequisite for invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), a potentially devastating infection that disproportionately afflicts infants and children. Humans are the sole known reservoir for the meningococcus, and it is carried asymptomatically in the nasopharynx of ~10% of the population. Rates of carriage are dependent on age of the host and social and behavioural factors. In the UK, meningococcal carriage has been studied through large, multi-centre carriage surveys of adolescents in 1999, 2000, and 2001, demonstrating carriage can be affected by immunisation with the capsular group C meningococcal conjugate vaccine, inducing population immunity against carriage. Fifteen years after these surveys were carried out, invasive meningococcal disease incidence had declined from a peak in 1999. The UKMenCar4 study was conducted in 2014/15 to investigate rates of carriage amongst the adolescent population during a period of low disease incidence. The protocols and methodology used to perform UKMenCar4, a large carriage survey, are described here.