TY - JOUR AU - Sáfadi, Marco Aurelio Palazzi AU - Carvalhanas, Telma Regina Marques Pinto AU - Paula de Lemos, Ana AU - Gorla, Maria Cecilia Outeiro AU - Salgado, Maristela AU - Fukasawa, Lucila AU - Gonçalves, Maria Gisele AU - Higa, Fabio AU - Brandileone, Maria Cristina Cunto AU - Sacchi, Claudio Tavares AU - Ribeiro, Ana Freitas AU - Sato, Helena Keico AU - Bricks, Lucia Ferro AU - Cassio de Moraes, José T1 - Carriage Rate and Effects of Vaccination after Outbreaks of Serogroup C Meningococcal Disease, Brazil, 2010 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2014 VL - 20 IS - 5 SP - 806 SN - 1080-6059 AB - During 2010, outbreaks of serogroup C meningococcal (MenC) disease occurred in 2 oil refineries in São Paulo State, Brazil, leading to mass vaccination of employees at 1 refinery with a meningococcal polysaccharide A/C vaccine. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of meningococci carriage among workers at both refineries and to investigate the effect of vaccination on and the risk factors for pharyngeal carriage of meningococci. Among the vaccinated and nonvaccinated workers, rates of overall meningococci carriage (21.4% and 21.6%, respectively) and of MenC carriage (6.3% and 4.9%, respectively) were similar. However, a MenC strain belonging to the sequence type103 complex predominated and was responsible for the increased incidence of meningococcal disease in Brazil. A low education level was associated with higher risk of meningococci carriage. Polysaccharide vaccination did not affect carriage or interrupt transmission of the epidemic strain. These findings will help inform future vaccination strategies. KW - meningococcal carriage KW - meningococcal vaccines KW - meningococcus KW - Neisseria meningitidis KW - herd immunity KW - bacteria KW - vaccination KW - Brazil KW - transmission KW - epidemic strain KW - serogroup C DO - 10.3201/eid2005.130948 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/5/13-0948_article ER - End of Reference