Doctoral Dissertation
Genome-based characterization
of Neisseria meningitidis
with focus on the emergent
serogroup Y disease
BIANCA TÖRÖS
Medical science with a specialisation in Biomedicine
Örebro Studies in Medicine 109 I
ÖREBRO 2014ÖREBRO STUDIES IN MEDICINE 109 2014
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bianca törös was born in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in
1987 and grew up in Kumla, Sweden. She received her MSc in Engineering, Biotechnology at Lund University in 2011. She subsequently started her doctoral studies the same year at the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Microbiology, Örebro University Hospital after developing an interest in meningococci during her MSc project. The bacterium Neisseria meningitidis, also referred to as meningococcus, is one of the leading causes of epidemic meningitis and septicaemia world-wide. The bacterium is carried asymptotically in the upper respiratory tract of approximately 10% of the population during endemic situations. For reasons still not understood, the meningococcus in some rare cases invades its host causing meningococcal disease, which has a deadly outcome in about 10% of the cases or can lead to significant sequelae. The disease is treated with antibiotics and, to some extent, prevented with vaccines. The risk of acquiring invasive meningococcal disease is highest if carrying one of the six serogroups: A, B, C, W, X and Y. Different serogroups dominate in different parts of the world and their distribution fluctuates with time. The changing pattern of meningococcal disease needs careful surveillance for disease control prevention (e.g., determining vaccination policies). Therefore, the present thesis evaluates genetic typing schemes for surveillance and outbreak investigations. Meningococcal disease caused by serogroup Y, a previously uncommon serogroup in Sweden and Europe, has increased in the beginning of the 2010s to represent about half of all meningococcal disease cases in Sweden. The genetic characteristics of serogroup Y are described in the present thesis in an effort to understand some of the factors involved in the successful spread of this serogroup throughout Sweden and other European countries.
issn 1652-4063 isbn 978-91-7529-032-4
