Carriage of meningococci in contacts of patients with meningococcal disease

BMJ 1999;318:665 ( 6 March )

Letters

Carriage of meningococci in contacts of patients with meningococcal disease

"Kissing contacts" need to be defined

Chemoprophylaxic strategy needs to be determined

Age and other risk factors need to be taken into account

Authors' reply

"Kissing contacts" need to be defined

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ In their study Kristiansen et al show high carriage rates of pathogenic strains of Neisseria menigitidis in householdand kissing contacts of patients with invasive meningococcal disease.¹While it is easy to define a household contact it may be moredifficult to define a kissing contact. There are many types ofkiss, ranging from a "peck on the cheek" to much more! In somecultures kissing is as common as shaking hands. In such situationswidespread chemoprophylaxis to "kissing contacts" may not be appropriate.It would be valuable to know whether Kristiansen et al placedany restrictions on who was defined as a kissingcontact.

Andrew Hayward, Lecturer in public health medicine.
Medical School, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH Andrew.Hayward@nottingham.ac.uk

Kristiansen BE, Tveten Y, Jenkins A. Which contacts of patients with meningococcal disease carry the pathogenic strain of Neisseria meningitidis? A population based study. BMJ 1998; 317: 621-625[Abstract/Free Full Text]. (5 September.)

Chemoprophylaxic strategy needs to be determined

EDITOR $---$ The study by Kristiansen et al addresses important questions about the use of chemoprophylaxis in contacts of patientswith meningococcal disease.¹ We believe, however, that thedata presented do not fully support the conclusions. Kristiansenet al found high rates of . . . [Full text of this article]

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Which contacts of patients with meningococcal disease carry the pathogenic strain of Neisseria meningitidis? A population based study: Bjørn-Erik Kristiansen, Yngvar Tveten, and Andrew Jenkins
BMJ 1998 317: 621-625. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]