Epidemiological profile of Neisseria meningitidis in Casablanca, Morocco: 2010–2019

Khadija Ait Mouss (1, 2, 3) , Aziza Razki (3) , Eva Hong (4) , Bahija Zaki (2) , Fakhreddine Maaloum (1, 2) , Néhémie Nzoyikorera (1, 2) , Houria Belabbes (2, 1) , Naima Elmdaghri (2) , Khalid Zerouali (1, 2)

1 UH2MC - Université Hassan II [Casablanca]
2 CHU Ibn Rochd [Casablanca]
3 Institut Pasteur du Maroc
4 Infections Bactériennes Invasives - Invasive Bacterial Infections

Surveillance of invasive meningococcal diseases (IMD) must be carried out regularly and continuously in order to detect the emergence of strains of reduced susceptibility to antibiotics for therapeutic and prophylactic use and the appearance of new invasive clones. Molecular-typing approaches allow reliable traceability and powerful epidemiological analysis. This is an epidemiological study of Neisseria meningitidis causing meningitis in Casablanca, Morocco. The grouping was confirmed by PCR mainly on the isolates from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). A total of 245 confirmed isolates of N .meningitidis were obtained between 2010 and 2019 of which 93 % are of group B. Overall, 24 % of all the isolates have a reduced susceptibility to penicillin G, but no resistance to penicillin G has been reported. All the isolated strains are susceptible to third-generation cephalosporins (3GCs). Genotyping by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of a selection of 18 strains showed that the majority of isolates belong to the invasive clonal complex CC 32(9/18) followed by the CC 41/44(3/18).

Keywords: penicillin G; multilocus sequence typing; Neisseria meningitidis; nucleic acid amplification techniques; penicillin G. Abbreviations: CC; clonal complex; 3CGs; third-generation cephalosporins; CLSI; Clinical and Laboratory Stadards Institute; CNR; National Reference Center; CRP; C-reactive protein; CSF; cerebrospinal fluid; IMD; Invasive meningococcal disease; MDSP; N. meningitidis decreased susceptibility to penicillin G; MLST; N. meningitidis; ST; sequence type

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Infectious diseases

Khadija Ait Mouss, Aziza Razki, Eva Hong, Bahija Zaki, Fakhreddine Maaloum, et al.. Epidemiological profile of Neisseria meningitidis in Casablanca, Morocco: 2010–2019. Access Microbiology, 2020, 2 (9), pp.acmi000157. ⟨10.1099/acmi.0.000157⟩. ⟨pasteur-03265132⟩