Investigation of a serogroup B meningococcal meningitis case in Shenzhen

Objective To investigate the cause of a serogroup B meningococcal meningitis case in Shenzhen.

Methods The epidemiological investigation was conducted for the case and close contacts. The cerebrospinal fluid and blood samples from the case and the throat swabs from the contacts were collected for the pathogen isolation/culture and PCR detection. The isolates were sequenced with next generation sequencing method.

Results Two strains of serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis were isolated from the blood sample of the case and throat swab of case’s mother, respectively. The two isolates shared the same multilocus sequence typing（MLST） type of ST-3200/CC4821, same 16S rRNA sequence, and same alleles of genes related to antibiotic susceptibility and coding peptides.

Conclusion The meningococcal disease case was caused by the transmission of serogroup B N. meningitidis from case’ mother who was a healthy carrier.