Invasive meningococcal disease in Norway in the two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Objectives: Disease caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis remains a worldwide public health challenge, despite the steadily decreasing incidence in Western countries. The objective of this study was to explore the epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease in Norway over the last two decades.

Design: All isolates sent to the National Reference Laboratory from patients with invasive meningococcal disease between the years 2000 and 2019 were analyzed using whole genome sequencing (total: 625).

Results: A five-fold decrease in case numbers occurred over this period, and the situation has gone from being dominated by serogroup B to one where serogroups Y and W are more prevalent. Concurrently, the mean age at infection has increased from 18 to 33 years. Among the 350 serogroup B isolates, 87% were an exact match or cross-reactive with one or both the currently available serogroup B vaccines, but the proportion decreased in the past decade. Core genome analyses revealed a high variation in the number of allelic differences accumulated in epidemiologically linked isolates to the point that near-identical isolates were found several years apart.

Conclusion: Allelic distance is an imprecise metric for the degree of epidemiologic linkage between isolates in N. meningitidis.

Keywords: Disease outbreaks; Genomic epidemiology; Meningitis; Neisseria meningitidis; Transmission; Vaccine antigens.