[Pharyngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in a school of Niamey, Niger].

This study of pharyngeal carriage of Neisseria meningitidis in a school in Niamey, Nigeria was carried out to confirm the feasibility of evaluating the impact of conjugate vaccine on the meningococcal carriage. All 90 pupils attending the school were examined during the dry season in February 1998. All children had been vaccinated using polysaccharide A/C in 1996. Samples were collected from the soft palate and immediately seeded on selective medium. After incubation at 37 degrees C for 24 hours, suspicious colonies were re-seeded on Miller-Hinton medium. Identification of N. meningitidis was based on standard biochemical criteria, agglutination grouping and DNA fingerprinting. Seven carriers of N. meningitidis X:NT:P1.5 were found. One of these carriers also presented a strain of N. meningitis A:4:P1.9. The high prevalence of serogroup X strains coincided with an outbreak of meningitis involving the same sub-type and sequence-type in Niamey.