Meningococcal Disease: Case Studies and Research

This assignment delves into the complex world of meningococcal disease through a series of research articles. The focus is on understanding outbreaks, investigating the efficacy of vaccines like 4CMenB and MenB-FHbp, and exploring the impact of vaccination campaigns. The provided papers shed light on various serogroups (W, C, B) and their association with outbreaks in different regions.

Running head: OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE 1
Outbreak of Meningococcal Disease
Name
Institution

OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE 2
OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE
Introduction
This paper analyzes the outbreak of the Meningococcal disease. The paper majorly
concentrates on the spread of the disease on African Countries as it was rampant in under-
developed countries. It also describe in detail the root cause and factors that stimulates the spread
of the disease to other people and how it affect communities and families with an intention of
improving health of entire worldwide community. Meningococcal disease defines infections
initiated by the Meningococcus. The disease if not treated in the early stages can easily spread
towards many people. The last part will be the general conclusion based on the points discussed
in the paper.
Section A:
Disease Name
Meningococcal disease, the disease explains the actual infections stimulated by the
Neisseria Meningitidis. The actual outcome of the disease is the inflammation of the meninges
located in the brain and spinal cord. It then results into swelling accompanied with flu-like signs
which easily cause death within a short duration.
Involved Countries
The paper concentrates on the United States, Canada, and African countries specifically
South Sudan and Guinea.
Date of Discovery
Meningococcal disease initial discovery was in 1805 by Vieusseux during the actual
outbreak in Switzerland, however its causative factor was found in 1887 by Anton
Weichselbaum. The causative agent of Meningococcal disease was being termed as Neisseria

OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE 3
intracellularis because of the feature of the bacterium. It was then put in the Neisseria genus due
to correlation between the organism and Neisseria gonorrhea; it was later called Neisseria
meningitis.
Dates each Country was reached
The occurrence of the disease (meningococcal meningitis) was found periodically
worldwide and the discovery in most of the countries happens mostly in springs and winter.
Canada and United states found it in 1992- 1993 and it was later reported in Spain in 1995-1997.
United States then began reporting a total of three thousand issues of meningitis every year, and
of the total outcome an approximate of 10% are series and 30% of those who survived
experiences long lasting consequences(Patel et al., 2017).).
The disease (A meningitis epidemic) was also found in West Africa in region called as
Meningitis Belt. In Meningitis Belt an average of 150 to 900 individuals in a total of 100,000 are
mostly infected and the number increases to a high level of 1000 individuals per 100,000. The
largest of the diseases was found in Africa in 1996 and a total of 250000 cases were reported and
out of them a total of 25000 deaths took place. In 2006 in Texas, a total of 252 cases of the
bacterium were reported. The latest discovery in 2013 was reported and confirmed in South
Sudan and Guinea, in which a total of 404 cases and of the total a figure of 38 represent death
cases and 196 suspected cases.
1. Epidemiological determining factor of the outbreak
a. Transmission Route
In the last 50 years, N. meningitides joined streptococcus pneumonia and Haemophilus
influenza as the major causes of septicemia and bacterial meningitis. Despite of it being a new
pathogen in the history of human being, the disease was regarded to be a formidable adversary;

OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE 4
at early stages it resulted into mortality rates of roughly 80%. During world war 2 and 1,
serogroup A was widespread throughout the world, triggering large epidemics that causes
thousands of deaths. After World War 2, epidemiology changed to serogroup C and B from
serogroup A in industrialized nations.
The actual carriage rates vary among different age groups with infants showing a lower
rate of 4% and 50 years old exhibiting carriage rate of nearly 8%. The uppermost carriage was
recognized in the late teen years, with roughly 10% in the entire population.
Meningococcal disease are dominant among elderly and infants, with highest in
occurrence in young adults. The disease frequently affects young children and infants, although
outbreaks happen at a higher rate in young adults and adolescents. Age- correlated spreading is
also realized in the etiological agent. Infant are mostly being affected by serogroup B. whereas
serogroup C affects young adults and adolescents and Elderly are being affected mostly by
serogroups Y and B.
Meningococcal disease occurs due to unique seasonal variations all over the world. In
most of the sub-Saharan Africa, rapid disease rates happen during dry season. While in North
America, nevertheless, disease rates are higher in spring and winter.
Serogroups C and B are the core causative agents for most of the cases in Americas and
Europe. Though, Serogroup A is mostly found in Asia and Africa.
b Factors that put individual risk of contracting Meningococcal disease
The risk factors can be grouped into two: permissive factors (they are necessary but are
not enough for an outbreak to happen), and factors that stimulate an outbreak to happen. Suitable
climatic conditions, immunologic susceptibility, transmission of a virulent strain, and low

OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE 5
socioeconomic status seem to be core factors for an outbreak to happen. If these factors exist, an
outbreak can be precipitated by stimulating factors, for instance exceptional climatic condition
(dust storms, extremely dry season) or the transmission of a respiratory pathogen might be the
major causative factor for meningococcal disease. These characteristics suggest that immunity,
the socioeconomic status (or crowding or sanitation), and season are core factors in the
occurrence of the disease. Strains are also important features that may stimulate the occurrence
of epidemic disease.
2. How outbreak affects community at System Level
 Functioning of the schools
The outbreak occurs mostly amongst teenagers between the ages 15 and 19 years and to
children under 4years. It will affect the performance of the schools because most of the
community schools will record a large number of illnesses thereby making them waste time in
hospitals. These schools will also run at a loss because of the insufficient funds to come up with
the necessary preventive methods of controlling the actual spread of the disease. The incidence
can also lead to stigma as most of the children in schools will not interact with those who are
infected with the disease (McNamara et al., 2017). Community schools can also close when there
is increased spread of the disease this is being done in order to cab a high rate of illness and
death experience in schools. Most of the school will perform at a lost as most of the resources
will be used in creating awareness to children and mostly to parents on the method they can put
in place to counter the spread of the disease to many children especially to teenage who are in the
age of 15 to 19 years who are prone to the disease.
 Local government

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The outbreak of the disease will make the local government set up certain fund that can be
put in place to control the spread of the disease to many people. This may make the government
to sort some financial help from other sources hence leading to huge debt which will be taken
back to common citizens in the form of tax. The national government will also face
socioeconomic problems this is because the prevention and control of the disease will need a
huge amount of vaccine, medicines and other support from the government health authorities of
the community. Therefore, the local government will have the difficulty in dealing and
responding adequately to the above mention needs (De-Wals et al., 2017).
The local government will have the difficulty in alerting the people of the need of
controlling overcrowding. The local government also faces the problem of controlling actual
living standard of the people in order to cab the spread of the disease to the community and
thereby reducing the death rate. The local government will also face problem in controlling
actual population within the community.
 Businesses
Most of the community businesses will be affected in that it will lower their
performance the government will impart rules and regulation meant to control the kind of goods
and services which they are offering to the people and this will make them to perform at loss.
The community business will fall due to additional cost associated with operating in environment
where there is low population. This is because the disease may cause the loss of lives of large
number of people in the community and most of them will be in the hospital and will avoid
spending in those goods and services offered by the businessmen(Fiorito et al., 2017).
 Hospitals

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The cost associated with the outbreak of meningococcal can be divided into two; (I) cost
attached to control of outbreak; and (II) cost attributable to direct treatment of illness. These
costs may be personal, mostly determined in time estimate, and expressed as a fraction of the
total salary of each. The hospital will then employed additional care team which may consist of 2
nurses, pediatricians, 2 heath experts and 2 nurses. The analysis of 5 patients was performed in
order to enlighten the actual cost that the hospital will have to deal with during the process of
controlling the actual spread of the disease (Soeters et al., 2017). The total cost is high an
approximate of US 735 and this is in regard to cost associated to the cost of chemoprophylaxis
and cost of offices supplies.
3. Reporting Protocols
If the outbreak occurs in the community, the correct procedure is to immediately
informed the local health care jurisdiction this will help in informing the general community the
symptoms and signs of the illness so that it can be control at early stages. The local health care
will then perform laboratory experiment with an intention of identifying the real causative of the
disease with an intention of coming up with the preventive methods of preventing the actual
spread of the disease to a large group. After that the local health will then informed the local
government so that that they can work as a team for the purpose of alerting the general
community on the preventive method they can put in place to prevent the spread of the disease.
In the process the hospital will conduct vaccination program to the entire community (Campbell
et al., 2017).
4. Strategies Patient education

OUTBREAK OF MENINGOCOCCAL DISEASE 8
This strategy will help inform the individual patient on how they can stay without
affecting other people. They are being told on how to live safe free from factors that
stimulate the causes of the disease (Ladhani, Borrow & Andrews, 2018). They will be
advice on the important of vaccination and the need of following Doctor Prescription.
They are being advice not to be in close contact with other people and not to share eating
utensils with those who are not affected (Harris et al., 2017).
 Community education
This strategy should be explained clearly to highlight the risk to the community. This will
help in imparting sense to the community residents. During the outbreak, a clear communication
should be put in place within the community and they should be put into target groups and be
guided by the experts on communicable disease prevention. Active finding of case within the
community should be dealt with in detail. And in case it is realized that the outbreak occurred in
the community then accurate intervention should be put in place (Taha et al., 2016).
Conclusion
Meningococcal disease has been shown from the paper as deadly diseases that affect the
entire nations especially the African countries. It can be spread easily from one person to another
through actual contact and kissing. Intervention should therefore put in place by the government
in order to prevent the spread of the disease to many people. The two core strategies that should
be put in place are the provision of the required education to both the patients and the community
at large. The disease affect mostly the children and teenage of age between 15 to 19 years. The
can cause illness and death to large number of people.

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References
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Emergency meningococcal ACWY vaccination program for teenagers to control group W
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De Wals, P., Deceuninck, G., Lefebvre, B., Tsang, R., Law, D., De Serres, G., ... & Boulianne,
N. (2017). Impact of an Immunization Campaign to Control an Increased Incidence of

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Serogroup B Meningococcal Disease in One Region of Quebec, Canada. Clinical
Infectious Diseases, 64(9), 1263-1267.
Fiorito, T. M., Bornschein, S., Mihalakos, A., Kelleher, C. M., Alexander-Scott, N., Kanadanian,
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meningococcal serogroup B disease: Nation's first widespread use of bivalent rLP2086
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Harris, S. L., Donald, R. G., Hawkins, J. C., Tan, C., O’neill, R., McNeil, L. K., ... & Jones, T. R.
(2017). Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B vaccine, bivalent rLP2086, induces broad
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L. T. (2017). Meningococcal Carriage Following a Vaccination Campaign With MenB-
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Patel, J. C., George, J., Vuong, J., Potts, C. C., Bozio, C., Clark, T. A., ... & Diaz, M. H. (2017).
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W., ... & Wang, X. (2017). Meningococcal carriage evaluation in response to a serogroup
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