Aim: The aim of this study was to determine nasopharyngeal carriage rate and serogroup of Neisseria meningitidis strains isolated from Turkish recruits upon entry to the military. Material and Methods: Nasopharyngeal swab samples were obtained from 1995 soldiers and were inoculated immediately on BBL-modified Thayer-Martin medium plates. The plates were examined for the presence of colonies showing the typical morphology of N. meningitidis. Suspect colonies were screened for oxidase reactivity, and positive colonies were Gram stained. If Gram-negative diplococci were present, a biochemical profile by the API NH system was used for confirmation. Serogrouping of the meningococcal isolates was performed by a slide agglutination technique.
Findings: The nasopharyngeal carriage rate of N. meningitidis was found to be 4.2% (n=83). Of these meningococci, 15.6% (n=13) were serogroup Y, 10.8% (n=9) were serogroup W-135, 9.6% (n=8) were serogroup C, 6.1% (n=5) were serogroup B, 2.4% (n=2) were serogroup A. The 46 isolates (55.4%) were detected as nonserogroupable.
Conclusion: Since serogroup Y and W-135 are predominant in this study population, it was suggest that Turkish recruits should be vaccinated by quadrivalent vaccine (A,C,Y, and W-135) upon the military instead of A+C polysaccharide vaccine and now quadrivalent vaccine has been carried out.
Key words: Neisseria meningitidis, Turkish recruits, carriage Article Language: Turkish English
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