Meningococcal Disease

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnosis

   • Keith Cartwright

   Pages 1-8

3. Isolation, Culture, and Identification of Meningococci from Clinical Specimens

   • Per Olcén, Hans Fredlund

   Pages 9-21

4. PCR Diagnosis

   • Malcolm Guiver, Ray Borrow

   Pages 23-39

5. Detection of Meningococcal Antigen by Latex Agglutination

   • Michael A. Sobanski, Rosemary A. Barnes, W. Terence Coakley

   Pages 41-59

6. Meningococcal Serology

   • Stephen J. Gray, Ray Borrow, Edward B. Kaczmarski

   Pages 61-87

7. Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

   • Colin Block

   Pages 89-106

8. Molecular Approach for the Study of Penicillin Resistance In Neisseria meningitidis

   • Luisa Arreaza, Julio A. Vázquez

   Pages 107-119

9. Overview: Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Population Biology

   • Martin C. J. Maiden, Norman T. Begg

   Pages 121-130

10. Serological Characterization

    • Betsy Kuipers, Germie van den Dobbelsteen, Elisabeth Wedege, Loek van Alphen

    Pages 131-145

11. Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis

    • Mark Achtman, Giovanna Morelli

    Pages 147-155

12. Nucleotide Sequencing of Antigen Genes of Neisseria meningitidis

    • Rachel Urwin

    Pages 157-172

13. Multi-Locus Sequence Typing

    • Keith A. Jolley

    Pages 173-186

14. Capsular Operons

    • Ulrich Vogel, Heike Claus, Matthias Frosch

    Pages 187-201

15. Molecular Analysis of the Meningococcal LPS Expression

    • Michael P. Jennings, Andrew W. Berrington, E. Richard Moxon

    Pages 203-214

16. Genome Sequencing and Annotation

    • Alex C. Jeffries, Nigel J. Saunders, Derek W. Hood

    Pages 215-230

17. Representational Difference Analysis

    • Lucas D. Bowler, Aldert Bart, Arie van der Ende

    Pages 231-255

18. Managing Outbreaks

    • James M. Stuart

    Pages 257-272

19. Global Trends in Meningococcal Disease

    • Dominique A. Caugant

    Pages 273-292

20. Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Population Biology

    • Keith Cartwright

    Pages 293-311

Meningococcal septicemia and meningitis continue to be important causes of devastating illness, death, and long-term disability in both developed and resource-poor countries of the world. Few diseases have attracted as much public attention, or are as feared by parents and family members, as well as the medical staff who have to care for affected patients. The unexpected and unp- dictable occurrence of the disease in previously healthy children and young adults, its rapid progression, and the frequent occurrence of purpura fulminans with the resulting gangrene of limbs and digits and the requirement for mutilating s- gery, have all heightened both public and medical interest in the disease. Over the past two decades there has been a rapid increase in knowledge of many aspects of meningococcal disease as a result of intensive efforts by workers in many different fields: clinicians have studied the early presenting features and acute pathophysiology of the disorder; clinical scientists have explored the immunopathological mechanisms responsible for disease and have highlighted the important roles played by the host inflammatory response and pro-inflammatory cytokines in mediating damage to blood vessels and organs; microbiologists have developed new diagnostic methods; public health phy- cians and epidemiologists have improved surveillance techniques with the help of molecular tools provided by bacterial population biologists; and basic sci- tists have used the powerful new tools in molecular and cell biology to elucidate virulence mechanisms.

• infectious diseases

"The editors invited the most skilled specialists in the world, 95 contributors, to share with the readers their knowledge of many aspects of meningococcal disease....The book is a brilliant and comprehensive review of the most recent methods for investigation of meningococcal disease and Neisseria meningitidis. It also includes detailed protocols, which should contribute to standardization of meningococcal investigation in the whole world and should allow different laboratories to obtain comparable results. The book is an excellent source of references. It is highly recommended to microbiologists, epidemiologists and clinicians dealing with meningococcal disease." - Folia Microbiologia

"The book claims to be "a comprehensive and authoritative review of meningococcal biology", "an interdisciplinary survey of recent advances and knowledge", to give "cutting-edge methods for the diagnosis, epidemiology and treatment of meningococcal disease", and it fully meets these standards. It has achieved its aim to join basic science with epidemiological and clinical aspects of the disease." - International Journal of Medical Microbiology

• BC Research Institute for Children’s and Women’s Health, Vancouver, Canada

  Andrew J. Pollard

• Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease, Oxford, UK

  Martin C. J. Maiden

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