Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj

Haitham El Bashir; Pietro G. Coen; Elizabeth Haworth; Sue Taylor; Albert Mifsud; Ahsanullah El Baki; Jane Zuckerman; Stephen Gray; Robert Booy

doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.01.006

Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj

Haitham El Bashir^*
, Pietro G. Coen
, Elizabeth Haworth
, Sue Taylor
, Albert Mifsud
, Ahsanullah El Baki
, Jane Zuckerman
, Stephen Gray
, Robert Booy

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: For two successive years, 2000 and 2001, there was a world-wide outbreak of W135 meningococcal disease amongst pilgrims who attended the Hajj and in their contacts after returning home. Methods: Beginning January 2002, we offered meningococcal quadrivalent polysaccharide vaccine (against serogroups A, C, Y and W135) to pilgrims and collected a throat swab for meningococcal W135 carriage before and after their pilgrimage. Results: The overall Neisseria meningitidis carriage pre-Hajj was 8.3% and 6.3% post-Hajj. We found W135 carriage rates of 0.8% before and 0.6% after Hajj, respectively. 21% (36/174) of the pilgrims were treated with antibiotics for respiratory illness. Conclusion: The carriage of meningococcus W135 among UK pilgrims who visited the Hajj in 2002 was low. This contrasts with another study suggesting pilgrims frequently acquired N. meningitidis W135 carriage during 2001 Hajj. The use of the quadrivalent vaccine may account for this difference.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	13-15
Number of pages	3
Journal	Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume	2
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.01.006
Publication status	Published - Feb 2004

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Department of Health, England, Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) and The Public Health Laboratory Service (now Health Protection Agency). GSK provided the vaccine free of charge. The Department of Health and GSK had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report.

Keywords

Ciprofloxacin
Epidemic
Neisseria meningitidis
Throat swab
Travel

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.01.006

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El Bashir, H., Coen, P. G., Haworth, E., Taylor, S., Mifsud, A., El Baki, A., Zuckerman, J., Gray, S., & Booy, R. (2004). Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 2(1), 13-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.01.006

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title = "Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj",

abstract = "Background: For two successive years, 2000 and 2001, there was a world-wide outbreak of W135 meningococcal disease amongst pilgrims who attended the Hajj and in their contacts after returning home. Methods: Beginning January 2002, we offered meningococcal quadrivalent polysaccharide vaccine (against serogroups A, C, Y and W135) to pilgrims and collected a throat swab for meningococcal W135 carriage before and after their pilgrimage. Results: The overall Neisseria meningitidis carriage pre-Hajj was 8.3\% and 6.3\% post-Hajj. We found W135 carriage rates of 0.8\% before and 0.6\% after Hajj, respectively. 21\% (36/174) of the pilgrims were treated with antibiotics for respiratory illness. Conclusion: The carriage of meningococcus W135 among UK pilgrims who visited the Hajj in 2002 was low. This contrasts with another study suggesting pilgrims frequently acquired N. meningitidis W135 carriage during 2001 Hajj. The use of the quadrivalent vaccine may account for this difference.",

keywords = "Ciprofloxacin, Epidemic, Neisseria meningitidis, Throat swab, Travel",

author = "\{El Bashir\}, Haitham and Coen, \{Pietro G.\} and Elizabeth Haworth and Sue Taylor and Albert Mifsud and \{El Baki\}, Ahsanullah and Jane Zuckerman and Stephen Gray and Robert Booy",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Department of Health, England, Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) and The Public Health Laboratory Service (now Health Protection Agency). GSK provided the vaccine free of charge. The Department of Health and GSK had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report. ",

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doi = "10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.01.006",

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volume = "2",

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journal = "Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease",

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El Bashir, H, Coen, PG, Haworth, E, Taylor, S, Mifsud, A, El Baki, A, Zuckerman, J, Gray, S & Booy, R 2004, 'Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj', Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 13-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2004.01.006

TY - JOUR

T1 - Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj

AU - El Bashir, Haitham

AU - Coen, Pietro G.

AU - Haworth, Elizabeth

AU - Taylor, Sue

AU - Mifsud, Albert

AU - El Baki, Ahsanullah

AU - Zuckerman, Jane

AU - Gray, Stephen

AU - Booy, Robert

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Department of Health, England, Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) and The Public Health Laboratory Service (now Health Protection Agency). GSK provided the vaccine free of charge. The Department of Health and GSK had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report.

PY - 2004/2

Y1 - 2004/2

N2 - Background: For two successive years, 2000 and 2001, there was a world-wide outbreak of W135 meningococcal disease amongst pilgrims who attended the Hajj and in their contacts after returning home. Methods: Beginning January 2002, we offered meningococcal quadrivalent polysaccharide vaccine (against serogroups A, C, Y and W135) to pilgrims and collected a throat swab for meningococcal W135 carriage before and after their pilgrimage. Results: The overall Neisseria meningitidis carriage pre-Hajj was 8.3% and 6.3% post-Hajj. We found W135 carriage rates of 0.8% before and 0.6% after Hajj, respectively. 21% (36/174) of the pilgrims were treated with antibiotics for respiratory illness. Conclusion: The carriage of meningococcus W135 among UK pilgrims who visited the Hajj in 2002 was low. This contrasts with another study suggesting pilgrims frequently acquired N. meningitidis W135 carriage during 2001 Hajj. The use of the quadrivalent vaccine may account for this difference.

AB - Background: For two successive years, 2000 and 2001, there was a world-wide outbreak of W135 meningococcal disease amongst pilgrims who attended the Hajj and in their contacts after returning home. Methods: Beginning January 2002, we offered meningococcal quadrivalent polysaccharide vaccine (against serogroups A, C, Y and W135) to pilgrims and collected a throat swab for meningococcal W135 carriage before and after their pilgrimage. Results: The overall Neisseria meningitidis carriage pre-Hajj was 8.3% and 6.3% post-Hajj. We found W135 carriage rates of 0.8% before and 0.6% after Hajj, respectively. 21% (36/174) of the pilgrims were treated with antibiotics for respiratory illness. Conclusion: The carriage of meningococcus W135 among UK pilgrims who visited the Hajj in 2002 was low. This contrasts with another study suggesting pilgrims frequently acquired N. meningitidis W135 carriage during 2001 Hajj. The use of the quadrivalent vaccine may account for this difference.

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KW - Epidemic

KW - Neisseria meningitidis

KW - Throat swab

KW - Travel

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SN - 1477-8939

VL - 2

SP - 13

EP - 15

JO - Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease

JF - Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease

IS - 1

ER -

Meningococcal W135 carriage; enhanced surveillance amongst east London Muslim pilgrims and their household contacts before and after attending the 2002 Hajj

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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