ArticleThe Lancet. Global health2016
Household transmission of Neisseria meningitidis in the African meningitis belt: a longitudinal cohort study.
Article in The Lancet. Global health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meningococcal carriage among high school and university students in Gondar, Northwestern Ethiopia.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Estimating the impact of decreasing vaccination response times for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in low- and middle-income countries.BMC global and public health · 2026Article
- ModelingInfectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- Peritoneal dialysis peritonitis due toRenal failure · 2025Review
- Article
- Acquisition and clearance dynamics of Campylobacter spp. in children in low- and middle-income countries.Epidemics · 2024Article
- Meningitis in Niger Republic amidst COVID-19: current issues and novel recommendations.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2024Review
- Assessing the use of minimally invasive self-sampling at home for long-term monitoring of the microbiota within UK families.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Is Associated With Increased Meningococcal Carriage Acquisition Among First-year Students in 2 South African Universities.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2021Article
- Meningococcal Carriage among Household Contacts of Patients with Invasive Meningococcal Disease in Kathmandu, Nepal: A Longitudinal Study.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Transmission Dynamics and Microevolution of Neisseria meningitidis During Carriage and Invasive Disease in High School Students in Georgia and Maryland, 2006-2007.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2021Article
- Molecular insights into meningococcal carriage isolates from Burkina Faso 7 years after introduction of a serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine.Microbial genomics · 2020Article
- Vaccines against Meningococcal Diseases.Microorganisms · 2020Review
- Pharyngeal carriage rates of Neisseria meningitidis in health care professionals at a tertiary university pediatric hospital.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2020Article
- Insights on Population Structure and Within-Host Genetic Changes among Meningococcal Carriage Isolates from U.S. Universities.mSphere · 2020Article
- Risk factors for acquisition of meningococcal carriage in the African meningitis belt.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2019Article
- Analysis of a meningococcal meningitis outbreak in Niger - potential effectiveness of reactive prophylaxis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2019Article
- Narrative review of methods and findings of recent studies on the carriage of meningococci and other Neisseria species in the African Meningitis Belt.Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH · 2019Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInformation on transmission of meningococcal infection in the African meningitis belt is scarce. We aimed to describe transmission patterns of Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) in households in the African meningitis belt.
methodsCross-sectional carriage surveys were done in seven African meningitis belt countries (Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Senegal) between Aug 1, 2010, and Oct 15, 2012. Meningococcal carriers identified in these surveys and all available people in their households were recruited into this longitudinal cohort study. We took pharyngeal swabs at first visit and took further swabs twice a month for 2 months and then monthly for a further 4 months. We used conventional bacteriological and molecular techniques to identify and characterise meningococci. We estimated the rates of carriage acquisition and recovery using a multi-state Markov model.
findingsMeningococci were isolated from 241 (25%) of 980 members of 133 households in which a carrier had been identified in the cross-sectional survey or at the first household visit. Carriage was detected subsequently in another household member who was not an index carrier in 75 households. Transmission within a household, suggested by detection of a further carrier with the same strain as the index carrier, was found in 52 of these 75 households. Children younger than 5 years were the group that most frequently acquired carriage from other household members. The overall individual acquisition rate was 2·4% (95% CI 1·6-4·0) per month, varying by age and household carriage status. The mean duration of carriage was 3·4 months (95% CI 2·7-4·4).
interpretationIn the African meningitis belt, transmission of meningococci within households is important, particularly for young children, and periods of carriage are usually of short duration.
fundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.