title: Serogroups and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Neisseria meningitidis isolated from army recruits in a training camp.
abstract: Invasive Neisseria meningitidis infection is rare but carries a high mortality rate. The carriage rate in the normal population is around 10% and can be higher in confined populations. A study on the prevalence of carriage of N. meningitidis was conducted among 3195 army recruits after 2 months of intensive training in an army camp. N. meningitidis was isolated from 37.0% of these recruits. Two hundred and ten of N. meningitidis isolates were subjected to serogrouping and 100 to antibiotic sensitivity testing by the disc diffusion method and E-test for penicillin. Ten (4.8%) of 210 Neisseria meningitidis serogrouped belonged to serogroup W135, 3.33% serogroup A and 81.4% belonged to either serogroup X, Y or Z. With the agar disc diffusion method, all the N. meningitidis showed susceptiblity to chloramphenicol, rifampicin, cefotaxime and levofloxacin; 85% of the strains were resistant to cotrimoxazole and 12.5% resistant to penicillin. However, based on minimum inhibitory concentration, none of the Neisseria meningitidis tested was resistant to penicillin.
authors.affiliation: Bacteriology Division, Infectious Disease Research Centre, Institute for Medical Research, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: M Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Rohani
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ahmad Afkhar
authors.forename: Muhriz A L
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Amir
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muhd Amir
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sahura
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fairuz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Norazah
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Monalisa
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Azizah
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Norzarila
authors.forename: K E Victor
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission*; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D008889:Military Personnel; D009345:Neisseria meningitidis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents