Author/Authors :
Rohani, MY Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Afkhar, F Ahmad Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Muhriz, AL Amir Hospital Angkatan Tentera, Malaysia , Amir, K Muhd Institute for Medical Research - Epidemiology Division, Malaysia , Sahura, H , Fairuz, A Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Norazah, A Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Monalisa, AR Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Tay, AW Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Azizah, M Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Norzarila, Z Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia , Victor Lim, KE Institute for Medical Research - Infectious Disease Research Centre - Bacteriology Division, Malaysia
Abstract :
Invasive Neisseria meningitidis infection is rare but carries a high mortality rate. The carriage rate in the normal population is around 10% and can be higher in confined populations. A study on the prevalence of carriage of N. meningitidis was conducted among 3195 army recruits after 2 months of intensive training in an army camp. N. meningitidis was isolated from 37.0% of these recruits. Two hundred and ten of N. meningitidis isolates were subjected to serogrouping and 100 to antibiotic sensitivity testing by the disc diffusion method and E-test for penicillin. Ten (4.8%) of 210 Neisseria meningitidis serogrouped belonged to serogroup W135, 3.33% serogroup A and 81.4% belonged to either serogroup X, Y or Z. With the agar disc diffusion method, all the N. meningitidis showed susceptiblity to chloramphenicol, rifampicin, cefotaxime and levofloxacin; 85% of the strains were resistant to cotrimoxazole and 12.5% resistant to penicillin. However, based on minimum inhibitory concentration, none of the Neisseria meningitidis tested was resistant to penicillin.
