Etiology of the first meningococcal pneumonia case in China

Objective To investigate the pathogenic and molecular characteristics of the first Neisseria meningitidis strain isolated from a pneumonia case in China. Methods Species and serogroup identification for the strain were performed using bacteriological tests and slide agglutination, respectively. Real-time PCR were used to determine the genotypic capsular group. Further isolate characterization was performed using multiple locus sequence typing (MLST) and porA, fetA genotyping. The antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by Etest. Results The isolate from endobronchial aspirate of the pneumonia patient was non-groupable N. meingitidis with Y serogroup-specific capsular gene. The porA genotype was VR1.1-5, VR2.P10-4 and the fetA genotypewas F1-5. The designated number of the strain by MLST database is ST-11039, which belongs to ST-92 clonal complex (cc). The strain was resistant to compound sulfamethoxazole, azithromycin, ciprofloxacin and lecofloxacin. Conclusion This is the first report of the isolation of N. meningitidis from pneumonia patient in China. Whether there have been other meningococcal pneumonia cases occurred in China needs further data support in order to evaluate the disease burden.