Talk:Neisseria meningitidis

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==strains, vaccination etc. It would better to have Meningococcal disease (Meningococcal meningitis which redirects to same) and Meningococcemia all redirect here. This article links as required to meningitis and septicemia (otherwise much of same info discussed on this bacteria page, overall men. disease page, men. septicaemia, men. menigitis, septicaemia & menigitis pages....phew). David Ruben Talk 01:26, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

  • Agree - as proposer David Ruben Talk 01:26, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose - differentiate between disease and bacteria - Bemoeial 21:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose - Smooth O 07:53, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose - Gak 19:02, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Suggestion merge Meningococcemia to Neisseria meningitidis

My proposal is on same basis as for Meningococcal disease (foir which Meningococcal meningitis redirects to it), but I'll split the proposal in case people feel that one merger has different merits from the other. David Ruben Talk 01:31, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

  • Agree - as proposer David Ruben Talk 01:31, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose - differentiate between disease and bacteria - Bemoeial 21:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose - Gak 19:02, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Suggestion merge Meningococcal disease and Meningococcemia

  • Agree - Bemoeial 21:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Agree - The bacterium and the disease(s) are distinct (though should be linked with one another), but meningococcemia seems to be a presenting element in meningococcal disease, and should be mentioned as such in that article. Blackjack4124 06:52, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Agree - Gak 19:01, 5 October 2006 (UTC) Organism and disease should be kept separate, but there is no reason why these two articles should not be merged.


Meningococcal disease has just been merged to Meningococcemia, but is this not the wrong way round? Most of what has been merged in is about the meningococcal meningitis, not the sepicaemia (i.e. Severe headache, Nausea and vomiting, Stiff neck, Sensitivity to light (photophobia), Mental status changes). Furthermore whilst the diagnosis of Meningococcemia is indeed through blood culture, for the meningitis it should be via a lumbar puncture sample. Would it not be better to have all of this as the article Meningococcal disease, which then includes separate descriptions of both the septicaemia (Meningococcemia) and the meningitis ? David Ruben Talk 03:13, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, excellent points, also meningococcal disease is a far more familiar term. cyclosarin (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] i learned this differently

[quote] B - is the most lethal form, comprising 40% of UK cases. The changing nature of the B group has prevented formation of a general B vaccine in the UK. However there has been developed the vaccine MeNZB against a specific strain of group B meningococcus, currently being used to control an epidemic in New Zealand. [/quote]

I learned this as not that it was the changing nature, but that the antigens are too similar to human antigens...

Thoughts? Tkjazzer 02:44, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

From what I learned, it is a combination of the two... the B serogroup does have polysialic acid on its LPS, which prevents some immune system components from recognizing it, but there is a high amount of variation of the surface proteins of all groups, partially due to the fact that the bacteria continuously sheds its LPS, but also due to recombination (is this the correct term?) of the genes for the production of the surface antigens. Can anyone else elaborate? Jsmith86 (talk) 22:21, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Importance of the X strain?

I just noticed that there has been an edit adding the X strain as one of the most medically important strains. Is the cited outbreak in Nigeria the only occurance of this strain, or is it starting to occur more as people are becomming vaccinated against other strains?Jsmith86 (talk) 01:47, 14 April 2008 (UTC)