Carriage rate of Neisseria meningitidis and some observations on the persistence of immunity in school children in parts of northern Nigeria

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorEnabulele, Onaiwu Idahosa
dc.date.accessioned2014-02-13T12:03:21Z
dc.date.available2014-02-13T12:03:21Z
dc.date.issued1983-09
dc.descriptionA project report submitted to the school of postgraduate studies, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Microbiology.en_US
dc.description.abstractAsymptomatic carriage of Neisseria meningitidis was studied in a total of 502 healthy school childrer in Zaria 214 in Shika and 332 in parts of Kano State, all in Nigeria between the months of August and December, 1982. The prevalence of N. meningitidis averaged 2I4.68% in Zaria 12.60% in Shika and 7.88% in Kano. The prevalence of N. meningitidis averaged 17.67% in children aged 5 - 7 years and increased to 36.67% in children aged 14 - 16 years old among those investigated in Zaria. In Shika, it averaged 6.91% in children aged 5 - 7 years and increased to 16.67% in those aged 14 - 16 years while in Kano, it average 4. 33% in the former set of children and increased to 14.28% in latter. There was no sex influence on the rate of meningococcal carriage in the groups studied. Analysis of the duration of immunity in school children vaccinated against groups A, meningococci was carried out three years after the children had received a bivalent (A + C) meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Sera were obtained from 69 of such immunized children in parts of Kano State. Additional 53 sera specimens were collected from non-vaccinated school children from the same area and used as controls. The duration of immunity to group A meningococci was determined by measuring meningococcal antibody levels in serum samples using the complement-dependent bactericidal antibody assay technique. It was observed that three years after vaccination, the group A meningococcal antibody level was much higher in the immunized children than in the control group of similar age range. Furthermore, it was observed that the rate of meningococcal carriage was much lower in the immunized children than in the non-immunized group. Meningococcal carriage amongst the groups investigated, showed that only group C meningococci was present in very low number amongst the vaccinated school children (5 carriers among 69 children), and group A meningococci was completely absent in these children. In general, carriers for meningococci groups A, D and X were absert in Kano and Shika whereas these groups were prominently present in Zaria. In addition, carriage rate for group C was identically low in Kano and Shika and significantly higher in Zaria. The persistence of elevated level of bactericidal antibodies in both immunized and non-immunized children was found to be markedly age dependent.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/1437
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectCarriage,en_US
dc.subjectrate,en_US
dc.subjectNeisseria meningitidis,en_US
dc.subjectobservations,en_US
dc.subjectpersistence,en_US
dc.subjectimmunity,en_US
dc.subjectschool children,en_US
dc.subjectparts,en_US
dc.subjectnorthern Nigeriaen_US
dc.titleCarriage rate of Neisseria meningitidis and some observations on the persistence of immunity in school children in parts of northern Nigeriaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
ENABULELE ONAIWU IDAHOSA.pdf
Size:
7.77 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.58 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
SCIENCE