Global Meningococcal Initiative: guidelines for diagnosis and confirmation of invasive meningococcal disease.

J. A. Vazquez (1) , Muhamed-Kheir Taha (2) , J. Findlow (3) , S. Gupta (4) , R. Borrow (3)

1 Institute of Health Carlos III
2 CNR - Centre National de Référence des Méningocoques et Haemophilus influenzae - National Reference Center Meningococci and Haemophilus influenzae
3 Vaccine Evaluation Unit [Manchester]
4 NCDC - National Centre for Disease Control [New Delhi]

The Global Meningococcal Initiative (GMI) is an international group of scientists and clinicians with recognized expertise in meningococcal disease including microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, public health and vaccinology. The GMI was established to promote the global prevention of meningococcal disease through education, research and international cooperation. The GMI held its second summit meeting in 2013 to discuss the different aspects of existing meningococcal immunization programmes and surveillance systems. Laboratory confirmation and characterization were identified as essential for informing evidence-based vaccine implementation decisions. The relative merits of different confirmatory methodologies and their applications in different resource settings were a key component of the discussions. This paper summarizes the salient issues discussed, with special emphasis on the recommendations made and any deficiencies that were identified.

Keywords: Diagnosis; GMI; meningitis; meningococcal disease

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Human health and pathology; Infectious diseases; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Bacteriology; Life Sciences [q-bio]; Santé publique et épidémiologie

J. A. Vazquez, Muhamed-Kheir Taha, J. Findlow, S. Gupta, R. Borrow. Global Meningococcal Initiative: guidelines for diagnosis and confirmation of invasive meningococcal disease.. Epidemiology and Infection, 2016, 144 (14), pp.3052-3057. ⟨10.1017/S0950268816001308⟩. ⟨pasteur-02060895⟩