Rapid, non-culture, serogroup determination of meningococcal infection
is important in contact
management where vaccination may be possible. The impending availability
of
polysaccharide–protein conjugate vaccines for serogroup C disease
requires
maximal case
ascertainment, with serogroup determination, at a time when the number
of
culture confirmed
meningococcal infections is decreasing. A polymerase chain reaction assay
(PCR),
based on a
restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) in the meningococcal serogroup
B
and C
sialyltransferase (siaD) gene, was developed to combine the non-culture
diagnosis of
meningococcal infection from CSF, whole blood and serum with serogroup
(B and C)
identification. The PCR assay was adapted to an ELISA format incorporating
hybridization
with serogroup-specific B and C oligonucleotide probes. Specificity for
CSFs
was 100% and
sensitivities were respectively 81, 63 and 30% for CSFs, whole blood and
sera.
The serogroup-specific PCR ELISA is a significant addition to currently
available tests for non-culture
diagnosis of meningococcal infection and outbreak investigation.