Background
Several clusters of serogroup C meningococcal disease among men who have sex with men (MSM) have been reported in the United States in recent years. The epidemiology and risk of meningococcal disease among MSM is not well described.
Methods
All meningococcal disease cases among men aged 18–64 years reported to the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System between January 2012 and June 2015 were reviewed. Characteristics of meningococcal disease cases among MSM and men not known to be MSM (non-MSM) were described. Annualized incidence rates among MSM and non-MSM were compared through calculation of the relative risk and 95% confidence intervals. Isolates from meningococcal disease cases among MSM were characterized using standard microbiological methods and whole-genome sequencing.
Results
Seventy-four cases of meningococcal disease were reported among MSM and 453 among non-MSM. Annualized incidence of meningococcal disease among MSM was 0.56 cases per 100 000 population, compared to 0.14 among non-MSM, for a relative risk of 4.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.1–5.1). Among the 64 MSM with known status, 38 (59%) were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV-infected MSM had 10.1 times (95% CI, 6.1–16.6) the risk of HIV-uninfected MSM. All isolates from cluster-associated cases were serogroup C sequence type 11.
Conclusions
MSM are at increased risk for meningococcal disease, although the incidence of disease remains low. HIV infection may be an important factor for this increased risk. Routine vaccination of HIV-infected persons with a quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine in accordance with Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations should be encouraged.
Background
Patients colonized with multidrug-resistant Candida auris and discharged to a community setting can subsequently seek care in a different healthcare facility and might be a source of nosocomial transmission of C auris.
Methods
We designed a case management pilot program for a cohort of New York City residents who had a history of positive C auris culture identified during clinical or screening activities in healthcare settings and discharged to a community setting during 2017–2019. Approximately every 3 months, case managers coordinated C auris colonization assessments, which included swabs of groin, axilla, and body sites yielding C auris previously. Patients eligible to become serially negative were those with ≥2 C auris colonization assessments after initial C auris identification. Clinical characteristics of serially negative and positive patients were compared.
Results
The cohort included 75 patients. Overall, 45 patients were eligible to become serially negative and had 552 person-months of follow-up. Of these 45 patients, 28 patients were serially negative (62%; rate 5.1/100 person-months), 8 were serially positive, and 9 could not be classified as either. There were no clinical characteristics that were significantly different between serially negative and positive patients. The median time from initial C auris identification to being serially negative at assessments was 8.6 months (interquartile range, 5.7–10.8 months).
Conclusions
A majority of patients, assessed at least twice after C auris identification, no longer had C auris detectable on serial colonization assessments.
We examined New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene surveillance data on hepatitis A, malaria, and typhoid to determine the proportion of these diseases related to travel and their geographic distribution. We found that 61% of hepatitis A cases, 100% of malaria cases, and 78% of typhoid cases were travel related and that cases clustered in specific populations and neighborhoods at which public health interventions could be targeted. High-risk groups include Hispanics (for hepatitis A), West Africans living in the Bronx (for malaria), and South Asians (for typhoid).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.