Jean Michel Alonso

..Those wild rodents settlements in arid biotopes, preserved from human activities, represent the main reservoir of plague. Their determination is mandatory for the surveillance of epizootics and the prevention of epidemics...

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..meningiditis A continues to be the principal strain isolated during the epidemic seasons and elimination of outbreaks of N. meningiditis serogroup A can still be considered as the primary objective of a preventive vaccination strategy...

..Therefore, meningococcal polysaccharide vaccines, either plain or conjugated, are indicated against the clonal expansion of strains whose serogroup has been properly identified and corresponds to the vaccine valence...

..Therefore, this model of meningococcal disease in adult mice reproduces the pathogenesis of human meningococcemia with fatal sepsis, and is useful for analyzing known or new genes identified in genomic studies...

..At the community level, influenza vaccine, beside its specific effects, might also prevent many cases of invasive superinfections, including meningococcal diseases...

..These isolates may be responsible for a peak in the incidence of serogroup C meningococcal infection in France, for which there is no routine vaccination to date...

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..To evaluate the immunogenicity of the meningococcal penicillin-binding protein 2 (PBP2) and its potential as a vaccine candidate...

..These events probably occur frequently, thus explaining not only the heterogeneous nature of meningococcal populations in carriers but probably also the evolutionary success of this human-restricted bacterium...

..Alternatively, targeted or local vaccine strategies may be developed against specific isolates and can help particularly in controlling outbreaks while preserving benefits from carriage...

..Thus, transgenic mice expressing human transferrin may represent an important advance as a new mouse model for in vivo studies of meningococcal virulence and immunogenicity factors...

..Genogroup B gave the best correlation between participants, as all laboratories routinely perform this PCR. The results for genogroups A and W135 were less similar between the eight participating laboratories that performed these PCRs...

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..Our results suggest the continuous emergence of new genetic lineages of serogroup W135 independently of the 2000 global outbreak...

..These data suggest that pili are potent inducers of sPLA2-IIA expression by AM, through a NF-kappaB-dependent process...

..meningitidis of serogroup W135 during the 2001 epidemics in Niger and in Burkina Faso and discuss the implications of this new epidemiological feature for future surveillance and vaccine strategies...

..A better understanding of the association between IAV and invasive meningococcal infections should help to set up improved control strategies against these seasonal dual viral-bacterial infections...

..No vaccine is available against serogroup B saccharide. However, protein-based vaccines (recombinant vaccines or outer membrane vesicle vaccines) allow developing vaccines against serogroup B isolates...

..The recent expansion of Neisseria meningitidis of serogroup W135 among pilgrims and their contacts underlines the need of a multidisciplinary procedure of alert...

..They were less susceptible to the bactericidal effect of normal human serum than was the ET-5 wild-type strain. These results are of concern, as PorA is a potential target in vaccine design...

..Other drugs that neutralize bacterial factors or host mechanisms involved in induction of inflammatory response are under development...

..The workshop concluded that there is no current evidence to suggest that serogroup C conjugate vaccine pressure has resulted in meningococcal serogroup switching or replacement...

..The absence of lipooligosaccharide in these mutants may result from a negative transdominance effect of a truncated LpxA protein on the wild-type LpxA protein...

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..7%). Approximately one-half of S. pneumoniae isolates had diminished susceptibility to penicillin. The case-fatality rates were 7.6% for children with N. meningitidis meningitis and 10.8% for children with S. pneumoniae infection...

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..This approach was first validated with a collection of 75 meningococcal strains of known phenotypes. It was next successfully applied to 29 clinical samples...

..During the period 2001-2002, Burkina Faso reported its first meningitis epidemic due to Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) serogroup W135, prompting concerns that this serogroup would persist as a cause of epidemic disease...

..The increase of serogroup A meningococci and the emergence of W135 strains highlight the need for increased surveillance for better diagnosis and prevention...

..Such strains were heterogeneous and accounted for approximately 30% of isolates during this period, warranting continued surveillance of this phenomenon...

..Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A is predominantly involved in these epidemics. We report here new data on the involvement of both serogroups A and W135 in meningitis cases in Burkina Faso and Niger at the end of the 2001 epidemic...

..meningitidis strains of the ET-37/ST-11 clonal complex, as well as the emergence of a new clone within the subgroup III/ST-5 clonal complex...

..This justifies an enhanced system of surveillance by molecular typing of such isolates, particularly after serogroup-specific vaccination...

..5% of the strains belonged to serogroup W135, although these strains had heterogeneous phenotypes. Bacteremia is a key step in the pathophysiology of meningococcal disease and precedes any form of invasive infection...

..These results suggest that the D,D-transpeptidase and/or D,D-carboxypeptidase activities of PBP2 are modified by the changes in penA gene...

..Thanks to new technologies of humanized monoclonal antibodies, immunotherapy offers real promising perspectives for prophylactic and therapeutic therapies against a variety of current or emerging infectious diseases...

..This assumption is based on the epidemiological observation that meningococcal outbreaks in Africa are clonal and are strikingly stable regarding their phenotypic characteristics...

..CrgA may play a central regulatory role in meningococcal adhesion, particularly in switching from initial to intimate adhesion by downregulating the bacterial surface structures that hinder this adhesion...