Rise in invasive serogroup W meningococcal disease in Australia 2013-2015

Abstract

Since 2013, there has been an increase in the number of notified cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) due to serogroup W (MenW) in Australia. In response to this observed increase, the Communicable Diseases Network Australia convened a working group in 2015 to collate and analyse the epidemiology of MenW disease nationally. Enhanced surveillance data collected by jurisdictions were collated and analysed, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) of MenW isolates assessed the genomic relatedness of strains between 2012 and 2015. This report describes that epidemiology. Since 2013, the incidence and proportion of MenW has increased in Australia, rising from an average of 2% of all IMD cases a..