ENZYME ELECTROPHORESIS, SEROTYPING AND SUBTYPING, AND OUTER-MEMBRANE PROTEIN CHARACTERIZATION OF 2 NEISSERIA-MENINGITIDIS STRAINS INVOLVED IN LABORATORY-ACQUIRED INFECTIONS

Two cases of laboratory-acquired infections due to Neisseria meningitidis were Suspected to have occurred in two French hospitals. The first case occurred shortly, i.e., 3 days, after one strain had been handled by a laboratory technician, and the link between this strain and the strain causing meningitis was easily established. In the second case, infection occurred 3 weeks after 10 strains had been handled by a technician. In this case, it was necessary to use high-resolution markers in order to establish the link between the infecting strain and I of the 10 strains handled. The antigenic formulae of the two infecting strains (serogroup: serotype:subtype) were, respectively, C:NT:P1.12 and B:2a:P1.2. Outer membrane protein profile analysis and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis unequivocally confirmed the identity of the respective strains.