The Bristol Meningococcal Natural History of Carriage study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Follow on study of meningococcal carriage in 15-19 year old school students: description of the natural history of colonisation and development of laboratory and epidemiological tools for detailed studies of the potential impact of novel vaccines upon transmission.
IRAS ID
160118
Contact name
Adam Finn
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Research summary
The meningococcus is a bug that commonly lives at the back of the throat without causing any symptoms in people “carrying” it. Meningitis and blood poisoning are very serious diseases, which can be caused by meningococcus (and some other bugs). Although only very few people get these diseases, teenagers and young children are at increased risk.
A national meningococcal carriage study in 7 UK sites is collecting one throat swab each from 18,000 healthy 15-19 year old school/college students. Of these, around 2,500 will be recruited in Bristol. The national study will tell us how many teenagers were carrying the bug on the day they had their swab taken, but it cannot tell us whether or how this changes over time.
This new study (funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) - Evaluation of Interventions) is a follow-on to the national study. The aim of this additional study is to look at the natural changes in meningococcus carriage in greater detail. To do this, we will take 5 further (monthly) swabs from 1,000 of the Bristol participants of the national study. Students will also be asked to complete a brief questionnaire about factors that may affect meningococcus carriage (smoking, antibiotic use etc) at the time of each swab.
We want to determine whether some people carry a larger number of bugs than others (high versus low carriers) and whether the amount of bug carried changes over time. We also want to find out how many people naturally stop carrying the bug, and how many who didn’t previously have it start carrying it (acquisition).
Understanding exactly how meningococcus carriage varies naturally will provide important information to help us use existing vaccines more effectively and develop better ones in the future.REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/1332
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion