Molecular epidemiology of recent belgian isolates of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B.

In Belgium an increase in the incidence of meningococcal disease has been noted since the early 1990s. Four hundred twenty clinical strains isolated during the period from 1990 to 1995, along with a set of 30 European reference strains, and 20 Dutch isolates were examined by random-primer and repetitive-motif-based PCR. A subset was investigated by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The data were compared with results obtained by serotyping (M. Van Looveren, F. Carion, P. Vandamme, and H. Goossens, Clin. Microbiol. Infect. 4:224-228, 1998). Both phenotypic and molecular epidemiological data suggest that the lineage III of Neisseria meningitidis, first encountered in The Netherlands in about 1980, has been introduced in Belgium. The epidemic clone, as defined by oligonucleotide D8635-primed PCR, encompasses mainly phenotypes B:4:P1.4 and B:nontypeable:P1.4, but strains with several other phenotypes were also encountered. Therefore, serotyping alone would underestimate the prevalence of the epidemic clone.