CDC Telebriefing: Status of Serogroup B Meningitis Cases in the United States | CDC New... - 1 views
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So, I’m going to give a basic overview of meningococcal disease, and provide you with some facts which can help families and providers understand and be aware of potential of meningococcal disease of students traveling home for the holidays. Meningococcal disease can be devastating and can strike otherwise healthy individuals. Every case of meningococcal disease really causes increased concern. But outbreaks cause an especially high amount of anxiety.
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ent. Our universities—many universities have very high coverage with the licensed and recommended vaccine that protects against serogroup C and Y. So we started to see fewer cases of serogroup C and Y meningococcal disease and more cases of serogroup B disease.
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Reports of this disease is more common in the winter months. Typically almost all cases of meningococcal disease are sporadic. Very few cases occur as part of our -- as part of an outbreak in terms of the total number of cases we see in the United States. But we do see a couple of meningococcal disease outbreaks typically every year.
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Meningitis is an infection of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, which is known as the meninges.
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Septicemia is an infection of the blood stream, and septicemia causes bleeding in the skin and organs and is often when we see complications from meningococcal disease that are not neurologic, it's frequently caused by septicemia.
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bout 15 percent of survivors have long term disabilities such as loss of limbs, deafness, nervous system problems, or brain damage. Early recognition and early treatment of meningococcal disease is key to reduce the long-term sequelae.
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ten difficult to diagnose meningococcal disease because often the first signs and symptoms are similar to the flu
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even with antibiotic treatment, people die in about 10 to 15 percent of cases of meningococcal disea
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Vaccination is the best way to prevent meningococcal disease when it's a vaccine preventable strain. Hand washing and covering your coughs or sneezes is also a good practice to follow. It's critical everybody be aware of the signs and symptoms of meningococcal disease and to seek treatment immediately.
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igns and symptoms of meningococcal disease include rapid onset of high fever, headache, and stiff neck. And when we say headache, we mean it's among the worst headaches that somebody's had in their life. And with the stiff neck, they really can't move their neck, or they can't, for example, touch their chin to their neck. Towards their chest, excuse me. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, increased sensitivity to light, confusion, exhaustion, and sometimes a rash.
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oommates who spend a lot of time together, are potential close contacts of a case of meningococcal disease.
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about 10 percent of people, not just in outbreaks, but all over in the United States, carry these bacteria in the back of their nose or throat and don't ever develop symptoms. This is known as carriage or being a carrier.
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nce a person becomes a carrier, most people develop immunity and the bacteria disappear from their nose and throat and then they're no longer a carrier. But rarely, the bacteria invades the blood stream and this is what happens when a person develops the disease.
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most cases of meningococcal disease appear to be random and aren't directly linked to each other. Even in the case of an outbreak—the cases are not occurring among close contact with each other, it's happening in an organization or community.
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e don't have a vaccine in the U.S. licensed to protect against serogroup B, which is the cause of the cases at Princeton University and UC Santa Barbara.
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Cases are reported quickly, meningococcal disease is highly recognized, and reported to health departments.
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CDC defines an outbreak of meningococcal disease of three or more cases in three months that can't be connected to each other.
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these outbreaks occur in a certain population, like school or organizations. Most outbreaks of this disease are self-limited and no more than three or four cases occur. However, when cases continue to occur over several-month period, like what is happening at Princeton University, intervention is required to reduce the length of the outbreak.
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Partners are working hard to organize potential serogroup B vaccine campaigns at Princeton University as quickly as possible.
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o there's all sorts of quality things that are happening to make sure that the vaccine arrives and can be used safely and effectively.
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Therefore, we are sending out a health alert to providers and state and local health departments, which will hopefully increase awareness for providers to consider meningococcal disease in their differential diagnosis, if a student presents with symptoms from one of these two universities.
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Serogroup is definitely a scientific word to describe the type of capsule around the meningococcal. You can use the word strain when we describe different serogroups. The word strain would be the b strain or c strain. When we're talking about whether or not strains are linked to each other, there we do additional molecular testing which looks at more than the capsule to see if the strains are the same. For example, we know that the strains that have caused all of the cases in -- at Princeton are identical. That's what helps us understand if an outbreak is being caused by one strain. And that doesn't necessarily mean you could have the same serogroup, but the strains could look a little different.
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f anything, it's just sorting reminding people to use good normal hygiene practices, such as washing your hands and coughing and sneezing into your arm. And sort of having increased awareness for good hygiene practices.
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ases really do occur in this university setting where there's probably a very specific pattern of transmission among college students. So we really don't have evidence to suggest that kids going home for Thanksgiving will be spreading the strain into those communities.
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here have been seven confirmed serogroup B cases at Princeton University, and one additional case in which additional testing is being conducted right now. And there are three cases at UC Santa Barbara.
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But more people are carriers than there are actually cases. I see what your question is, why are we not then worried about it spreading into the community. We don't have a good -- we don't have a great understanding of the organism and how it spreads. But what we do understand is that outbreaks really haven’t spread from universities into communities in the past. There have been community outbreaks of meningococcal disease. But we haven't seen cases occurring in universities expanding into those communities.
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So in most of our outbreaks, we see about three or four cases occur in a couple of month period of time and then we don't see additional cases. Depending on the size of the college or organization in which the outbreak is occurring, those attack rates usually range anywhere from 10 to 20 per 100,000. So one to two cases per 1,000 people at the university.
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Health officials follow up with a patient to see if they've come into close contact and then they recommend preventive antibiotics to close contacts.