Molecular and WGS-based characterization of invasive Neisseria meningitidis isolates collected in Belgium (2016–2022) and MenB-FHbp vaccine coverage estimation of serogroup B
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) caused by Neisseria meningitidis can result in life-threatening meningitis and septicaemia. There are twelve serogroups of N. meningitidis , but most cases of IMD are caused by serogroups A, B, C, W, X and Y. In Europe, serogroup B (MenB) accounts for 51 % of documented cases as recently reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). As a major cause of IMD, genomic surveillance of circulating MenB strains and assessment of the potential impact of vaccination programs could help inform public health policy. In this study, a collection of 493 strains was analysed, collected in Belgium by the National Reference Centre between 2016 and 2022. Slide agglutination was used for serogroup determination and whole genome sequencing (WGS) was used to further characterize these strains. The observed serogroups were: MenB ( n = 281), MenY ( n = 95), MenW ( n = 83), MenC ( n = 30), non-groupable isolates (n = 2), MenE ( n = 1) and MenX (n = 1). A higher prevalence of MenY and MenW was observed in older adults. MenB isolates were grouped into 110 sequence types (STs), 89 of which belonged to 16 clonal complexes (CCs). Coverage of the MenB-FHbp vaccine (Trumenba, bivalent rLP2086; Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, USA ipv Philadelphia) was predicted using the Meningococcal Deduced Vaccine Antigen Reactivity (MenDeVAR) index. Of the 281 MenB strains collected between 2016 and 2022, 89.1 % (lower limit – upper limit: 78.6–100.0 %) were predicted by MenDeVAR to be covered by the vaccine. This study highlights the benefits of a pathogen surveillance program and the need for experimental characterization of continuously evolving antigenic variants. • MenB was the leading cause of IMD in individuals under 65 years of age in Belgium from 2016 to 2022. • Increased prevalence of MenY and MenW observed in older adults. • High diversity of MenB isolates circulating in Belgium, with 110 STs detected, including 32 novel STs. • MenDeVAR predicts a coverage of 89.1 % for the MenB-FHbp vaccine (range: 78.6 % - 100.0 %).
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".