Etiological analysis of a neonatal meningococcal meningitis case in Taizhou, Zhejiang, 2019

ObjectiveTo understand the molecular epidemiological characteristics of the first neonatal case of ST-4821 complex serogroup B meningococcal disease in Taizhou.

MethodsBlood and cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected from the patient and throat swabs were collected from 10 close contacts for pathogen isolation. Biochemical and serogroup identifications were conducted for suspected meningococcal isolates, and the isolate’s drug susceptibility test was conducted, and the strains were subjected to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST).

ResultsThree strains of Neisseria meningitidis were isolated from the patient's blood sample and two close contacts’ throat swabs. The strains from the patient and one close contact belonged to serogroup B, and one strain from another close contact had no serogroup identification results. The drug susceptibility test results showed that the three strains were sensitive to cefuroxime sodium, ceftriaxone, meropenem, not sensitive to minocycline, resistant to ciprofloxacin and cotrimoxazole, and intermediate to penicillin G and chloramphenicol. PFGE typing showed that the similarity of the three strains was 100%, which was probably from the same source. The MLST result indicated that three isolates were all ST-5664 strains, belonging to the highly pathogenic ST-4821 complex.

ConclusionHighly pathogenic ST-4821 complex serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis spread in the healthy population of Taizhou, and has caused infection case, suggesting that the surveillance for its carrying status in healthy people and the molecular characteristics of the strains should be strengthened to provide laboratory support for the pathogen tracing and prevention and control of N. meningitides infection.