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Culture and non-culture whole genome sequencing was utilised and demonstrated that the four genomes of the responsible ST-41 strains clustered closely on a sub-lineage of ST-41\/44 clonal complex. The outbreak resulted in two fatalities. A distinct social group associated with one of the cases was selected for vaccination with 4CMenB and pharyngeal swabbing. <jats:italic>In vitro<\/jats:italic> culturing, multiple real-time PCR assays (<jats:italic>sodC<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>ctrA<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>siaD<\/jats:italic><jats:sub><jats:italic>B<\/jats:italic><\/jats:sub>) and a PorA PCR-sequencing assay were used to detect meningococcal colonisation and a carriage rate of 32.6% was observed. Furthermore, a high proportion of the pharyngeal swabs (78.3%) yielded a Factor H-Binding Protein (fHbp) nucleotide allele suggesting that the antigenic gene is prevalent among non-meningococcal flora, most likely <jats:italic>Neisseria<\/jats:italic> commensals. This may have implications for fHbp as a vaccine antigen should it be shown to influence bacterial colonisation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-019-46483-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,10]],"date-time":"2019-07-10T10:03:11Z","timestamp":1562752991000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Outbreak strain characterisation and pharyngeal carriage detection following a protracted group B meningococcal outbreak in adolescents in South-West England"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Stephen A.","family":"Clark","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jay","family":"Lucidarme","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Georgina","family":"Angel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aiswarya","family":"Lekshmi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Begonia","family":"Morales-Aza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Laura","family":"Willerton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Helen","family":"Campbell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steve J.","family":"Gray","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shamez N.","family":"Ladhani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mike","family":"Wade","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mary","family":"Ramsay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Julie","family":"Yates","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Adam","family":"Finn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ray","family":"Borrow","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"46483_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5814","DOI":"10.1016\/j.vaccine.2017.09.024","volume":"35","author":"S Mandal","year":"2017","unstructured":"Mandal, S. et al. 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A.F. has research grants, held by the University of Bristol, funded by GSK and Pfizer. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing Interests"}}],"article-number":"9990"}}