Abstract:
We report on 13 patients diagnosed with meningococcal infections
in patients attending state-owned hospitals serving an indigent
population in Pretoria in 2009. The case fatality rate was 27%.
Ceftriaxone was the main antibiotic (9 out of 13 patients) for therapy.
Five isolates (39%) were serogroup B and 4 (31%) serogroup W135.
Most isolates (12/13) were fully susceptible to penicillin (MIC range
0.016 - 0.047 μg/ml). A single isolate was intermediately resistant
to penicillin (MIC, 0.125 μg/ml) while all isolates were uniformly
susceptible to ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin and rifampicin. This
pattern reveals a shift in serogroups with an increase of serogroup B
disease in the Pretoria region, and the need for ongoing monitoring
of antimicrobial susceptibility profiles and the value of ceftriaxone
for favourable therapeutic outcome.
