Chemoprophylaxis for Neisseria meningitidis in an Isolated Arctic Community

• Published in: Journal of Infectious Diseases
• Main Authors: Nicolle, L. E., Postl, B., Kotelewetz, E., Remillard, F., Bourgault, A. M., Albritton, W., Harding, G. K. M., Ronald, A.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 1982
• Subjects: Antimicrobial Agents and Therapeutics; Arctic; eskimo*; inuit
• Online Access: http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/145/1/103; https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/145.1.103

Community chemoprophylaxis with a regimen of sequential minocycline/rifampin (adults) or rifampin alone (children [< 12 years of age)) was undertaken in a remote Arctic community one year after an outbreak of meningitis due to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B. Nasopharyngeal carriage rates of N. meningitidis before prophylaxis were 32.4% in Inuit (Eskimos) and 6% in Caucasians, with maximal carriage (44.8%) in adolescents. Serogroup B accounted for 63.9% of all isolates before prophylaxis. One week after prophylaxis, the nasopharyngeal carriage rates were 0.8% in Inuit who had received prophylaxis and 33.3% in those who had not received prophylaxis ( P < 0.(05). This reduction persisted at nine weeks after prophylaxis, when carriage rates were 1.2% in those who had received prophylaxis and 22.6% in individuals who had not received prophylaxis. Of the strains obtained before prophylaxis, 7.8070 were sulfadiazine-resistant, whereas 35% of all isolates obtained after prophylaxis were sulfadiazine-resistant. Rifampin- or minocycline-resistant strains were not identified either before or after prophylaxis.