Advs Exp. Medicine, Biology - Advances in Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Public Health DOI 10.1007/5584_2015_5006 # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 Imported and Indigenous cases of Invasive Meningocococcal Disease W:P1.5,2:F1-1: ST-11 in migrants’ reception centers. Italy, June-November 2014 Paola Stefanelli, Cecilia Fazio*, Arianna Neri*, Giovanni Rezza, Santino Severoni, Paola Vacca, Teresa Fasciana, Alessandro Bisbano, Francesca Di Bernardo, and Anna Giammanco Abstract We report about three unliked cases of meningococcal meningitis caused by the ST-11/ET-37 strain of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W. Two of the three cases, detected in Sicily on June and July 2014, were migrants from Mali and Eritrea. The third case was a fatal meningitis occurred on November 2014 in a 37 years old man, working in an immigrant center in Calabria. This report suggests that tetravalent conjugate vaccines (ACYW) should be actively offered to the staff of migrants’ reception centers. Keywords Neisseria meningitidis • Serogroup W • Typing • Migrant Invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) due to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W is uncom- mon in European countries. Although this serogroup accounts only for a small proportion of IMD cases in Italy, an increase from 2.1 % in 2010 to 4.7 % in 2014 has been observed (http:// www.iss.it/mabi/). *Author contributed equally with all other contributors. P. Stefanelli (*), C. Fazio*, A. Neri*, G. Rezza, and P. Vacca Department of Infectious, Parasitic & Immuno-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanita `, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy e-mail: paola.stefanelli@iss.it S. Severoni Coordinator Public Health and Migration, Division of Policy and Governance for Health and Well-being, European Office for Investment for Health and Development WHO Europe, Venice, Italy T. Fasciana and A. Giammanco Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care “G. D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy A. Bisbano Epidemiology Unit ASP Crotone, Calabria, Italy F. Di Bernardo U.O.C. of Microbiology, ARNAS General Hospital “Civico, Di Cristina e Benfratelli”, Palermo, Italy brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Palermo