REACTIVITY OF THE NEW MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY-22 WITH MENINGOCOCCAL STRAINS ISOLATED FROM PATIENTS AND CARRIERS IN GREECE

Previous studies found that the majority of Neisseria meningitidis iso lates from either patients or carriers in Greece do not react with the monoclonal antibodies used at present in the whole-cell ELISA (WCE) f or determination of serotype and subtype antigens. A new monoclonal an tibody designated '22' produced by the National Meningococcal Referenc e Laboratory in the Czech Republic was assessed in the whole-cell ELIS A with 257 non-typable meningococcal strains from both patients (52) a nd carriers (205). The carrier strains included 34 non-typable isolate s from two immigrant populations: ethnic Greeks who have immigrated fr om Russia since 1989 (19/75) and Kurdish refugees (15/34). Approximate ly 10% of the meningococcal strains isolated from patients and 11.7% o f the carrier strains reacted with the reagent. Although the majority of meningococcal isolates from resident Greeks were not typable with t he antibody, 11/19 (57.9%) of the carrier strains from Russian immigra nts and 4/15 (20%) of those from the Kurdish refugees reacted with the new reagent.