Infections with Neisseria meningitidis are grave and present
largely in two ways: as meningitis and septicemia. Their
case-fatality rate is high approaching 8% despite existing treatment.
Preventive measures must be swiftly implemented to avoid transmission to
patient relatives and the spread of the germ in the population.
Molecular surveillance by the National Centre for Meningococci (NCM)
is one of the means, together with mandatory disease notification by
physians and laboratories, to timely spot and fight epidemics.
NCM’s activities are carried out at the Bacteriology
Laboratory of the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG).
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The CNM must exercise an alert and expertise mission for
the attention of
the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), cantonal administrations,
diagnostic laboratories, the medical corps and hospitals.
In this perspective, the CNM’s objectives are: