Surveillance and control of meningococcal disease in the COVID-19 era: A Global Meningococcal Initiative review

RevisiónThis review article incorporates information from the 4th Global Meningococcal Initiative summit meeting. Since the introduction of stringent COVID-19 infection control and lockdown measures globally in 2020, there has been an impact on IMD prevalence, surveillance, and vaccination compliance. Incidence rates and associated mortality fell across various regions during 2020. A reduction in vaccine uptake during 2020 remains a concern globally. In addition, several Neisseria meningitidis clonal complexes, particularly CC4821 and CC11, continue to exhibit resistance to antibiotics, with resistance to ciprofloxacin or beta-lactams mainly linked to modifications of gyrA or penA alleles, respectively. Beta-lactamase acquisition was also reported through horizontal gene transfer (blaROB-1) involving other bacterial species. Despite the challenges over the past year, progress has also been made on meningococcal vaccine development, with several pentavalent (serogroups ABCWY and ACWYX) vaccines currently being studied in late-stage clinical trial programmes.Medical writing support was funded by Sanofi Pasteur.S

Meningococcal disease in North America: Updates from the Global Meningococcal Initiative

This review summarizes the recent Global Meningococcal Initiative (GMI) regional meeting, which explored meningococcal disease in North America. Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) cases are documented through both passive and active surveillance networks. IMD appears to be decreasing in many areas, such as the Dominican Republic (2016: 18 cases; 2021: 2 cases) and Panama (2008: 1 case/100,000; 2021: <0.1 cases/100,000); however, there is notable regional and temporal variation. Outbreaks persist in at-risk subpopulations, such as people experiencing homelessness in the US and migrants in Mexico. The recent emergence of β-lactamase-positive and ciprofloxacin-resistant meningococci in the US is a major concern. While vaccination practices vary across North America, vaccine uptake remains relatively high. Monovalent and multivalent conjugate vaccines (which many countries in North America primarily use) can provide herd protection. However, there is no evidence that group B vaccines reduce meningococcal carriage. The coronavirus pandemic illustrates that following public health crises, enhanced surveillance of disease epidemiology and catch-up vaccine schedules is key. Whole genome sequencing is a key epidemiological tool for identifying IMD strain emergence and the evaluation of vaccine strain coverage. The Global Roadmap on Defeating Meningitis by 2030 remains a focus of the GMI.Medical writing support for the development of this manuscript, under the direction of the authors, was provided Matthew Gunther of Ashfield MedComms, an Inizio company. Medical writing support was funded by Sanofi Pasteur. All authors discussed and agreed to the objectives of this manuscript and con- tributed throughout its production. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.S

Diversidade e prevalência das mutações de resistência genotípica aos antirretrovirais entre crianças infectadas pelo HIV-1 Diversity and prevalence of antiretroviral genotypic resistance mutations among HIV-1-infected children

OBJETIVO: Avaliar a genotipagem e subtipagem em crianças experimentadas e virgens de tratamento, assim como perfis de resistência a medicamentos através da genotipagem nessas crianças. MÉTODOS: Estudo retrospectivo de crianças HIV positivas virgens de tratamento e HIV positivas que não responderam ao tratamento pela terapia antirretroviral altamente ativa (HAART), acompanhadas na Santa Casa de São Paulo (SP). A genotipagem foi realizada com produtos purificados de reação em cadeia da polimerase (PCR) de RNA retrotranscrito, utilizando-se o kit comercial Viroseq HIV-1 Genotyping System 2.0 ou a técnica de nested PCR in-house. O sequenciamento foi realizado com equipamento automático (ABI 3100). As mutações de resistência antirretroviral (ARV) foram analisadas no Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database e a subtipagem realizada no U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), utilizando-se o programa de análises SimPlot, juntamente com a análise filogenética. RESULTADOS: Não foi detectada nenhuma mutação de resistência primária ARV nas 24 crianças virgens de tratamento, embora tenham ocorrido mutações que podem contribuir para a resistência aos inibidores da transcriptase reversa análogos de nucleosídeos (ITRN) (12,5%) e aos inibidores da protease (IP) (95,8%). Para as 23 crianças que não responderam à HAART, foram encontradas mutações de resistência ARV aos ITRN em 95,6% e aos inibidores da transcriptase reversa não-análogos de nucleosídeos (ITRNN) em 60,8%. Para os IP, foram observadas mutações de resistência ARV em 95,7%, 47,8% das quais apresentavam apenas polimorfismos. Nas análises de subtipagem, 78,3% das sequências agruparam-se no subtipo B do HIV-1, 4,3% no C, 13% no F e 4,4% em formas recombinantes. CONCLUSÕES: Nossos resultados mostram baixas taxas de resistência primária em crianças virgens de tratamento e altas taxas de resistência em crianças que não responderam ao tratamento ARV, o que é compatível com o uso ARV nesses pacientes.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate genotyping and subtyping in antiretroviral (ARV) naïve and experienced children, as well as drug resistance profiles through genotyping in these children. METHODS: This retrospective study assessed ARV-naïve HIV children and HIV children failing highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) followed up at Santa Casa de São Paulo. Genotyping was performed using purified polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products from retrotranscribed RNA using Kit Viroseq HIV-1 Genotyping System 2.0 or nested PCR in-house. Sequencing was performed using automatic equipment (ABI 3100). ARV resistance mutations were analyzed in the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database and subtyping was performed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), using SimPlot analysis, together with phylogenetic analysis. RESULTS: No primary ARV resistance mutation was detected in the 24 ARV-naïve children, although there were mutations that may contribute to resistance to nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) (12.5%) and to protease inhibitors (PI) (95.8%). For the 23 children failing HAART, we found ARV resistance mutations to NRTI in 95.6% and to non-nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) in 60.8%. For PI, we found ARV resistance mutations in 95.7%, 47.8% of which had only polymorfisms. In the subtyping analyses, 78.3% of the sequences clustered in HIV-1 subtype B, 4.3% in C, 13% in F and 4.4% in recombinant forms. CONCLUSION: Our results show low rates of primary resistance in ARV-naïve children and high rates of resistance in children failing ARV treatment, which is compatible with ARV use in these patients

Surveillance and control of meningococcal disease in the COVID-19 era: A Global Meningococcal Initiative review

RevisiónThis review article incorporates information from the 4th Global Meningococcal Initiative summit meeting. Since the introduction of stringent COVID-19 infection control and lockdown measures globally in 2020, there has been an impact on IMD prevalence, surveillance, and vaccination compliance. Incidence rates and associated mortality fell across various regions during 2020. A reduction in vaccine uptake during 2020 remains a concern globally. In addition, several Neisseria meningitidis clonal complexes, particularly CC4821 and CC11, continue to exhibit resistance to antibiotics, with resistance to ciprofloxacin or beta-lactams mainly linked to modifications of gyrA or penA alleles, respectively. Beta-lactamase acquisition was also reported through horizontal gene transfer (blaROB-1) involving other bacterial species. Despite the challenges over the past year, progress has also been made on meningococcal vaccine development, with several pentavalent (serogroups ABCWY and ACWYX) vaccines currently being studied in late-stage clinical trial programmes.Medical writing support was funded by Sanofi Pasteur.S