Healthcare and Social Needs Assessment and Response Quality Among Black Men.

To understand Black men's healthcare and social needs and determine if the resources that healthcare systems offer meet expectations. We surveyed men who had previously participated in at least one Minority Men's Health Fair in Cleveland, Ohio. In this descriptive study, we spoke with men up to three times (i.e., phases) between May and October 2020 by email and/or telephone. Phase 1 was a needs assessment survey. Phase 2 involved outreach to those who identified a need to provide a resource. Phase 3 determined whether the resource met individuals' needs. We described the demographic characteristics of the survey respondents, the percentage of men reporting a need and wanting a resource, and whether the resource resolved their need. Of the 768 men contacted, 275 completed the survey (36% response rate). The majority of respondents were 50-69 years old, identified as Black, and had at least a bachelor's degree. Eighty-five percent reported a need, of which wellness, financial, and healthcare access were among the top-reported needs. Among the men identifying a need, 35% were interested in a resource. Resources that were provided for employment, behavioral health, oral health, vision, or wellness needs were deemed insufficient. A few individuals reported that resources for food/personal hygiene, financial support, health care access, annual health screening, and medication met their needs. Among men with healthcare and social needs, only a fraction were interested in a resource, and fewer reported that the resource met their needs. These results warrant a greater understanding of what constitutes a resolution of healthcare and social needs from patients' perspectives.

Rapid Transmission of a Hyper-Virulent Meningococcal Clone Due to High Effective Contact Numbers and Super Spreaders.

Rapid transmission, a critical contributory factor in outbreaks of invasive meningococcal disease, requires naïve populations of sufficient size and intermingling. We examined genomic variability and transmission dynamics in a student population subject to an 11-fold increase in carriage of a hypervirulent Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W ST-11 clone. Phylogenetic clusters, mutation and recombination rates were derived by bioinformatic analyses of whole-genome sequencing data. Transmission dynamics were determined by combining observed carriage rates, cluster sizes and distributions with simple SIS models. Between 9 and 15 genetically-distinct clusters were detected and associated with seven residential halls. Clusters had low mutation accumulation rates and infrequent recombination events. Modeling indicated that effective contacts decreased from 10 to 2 per day between the start and mid-point of the university term. Transmission rates fluctuated between 1 and 4% while the R(t) for carriage decreased from an initial rate of 47 to 1. Decreases in transmission values correlated with a rise in vaccine-induced immunity. Observed carriage dynamics could be mimicked by populations containing 20% of super spreaders with 2.3-fold higher effective contact rates. We conclude that spread of this hypervirulent ST-11 meningococcal clone depends on the levels of effective contacts and immunity rather than genomic variability. Additionally, we propose that super-spreaders enhance meningococcal transmission and that a 70% MenACWY immunization level is sufficient to retard, but not fully prevent, meningococcal spread in close-contact populations.

Meningococcal core and accessory phasomes vary by clonal complex.

Neisseria meningitidis is a Gram-negative human commensal pathogen, with extensive phenotypic plasticity afforded by phase-variable (PV) gene expression. Phase variation is a stochastic switch in gene expression from an ON to an OFF state, mediated by localized hypermutation of simple sequence repeats (SSRs). Circulating N. meningitidis clones vary in propensity to cause disease, with some clonal complexes (ccs) classified as hypervirulent and others as carriage-associated. We examined the PV gene repertoires, or phasome, of these lineages in order to determine whether phase variation contributes to disease propensity. We analysed 3328 genomes representative of nine circulating meningococcal ccs with PhasomeIt, a tool that identifies PV genes by the presence of SSRs and homologous gene clusters. The presence, absence and functions of all identified PV gene clusters were confirmed by annotation or blast searches within the Neisseria PubMLST database. While no significant differences were detected in the number of PV genes or the core, conserved phasome content between hypervirulent and carriage lineages, individual ccs exhibited major variations in PV gene numbers. Phylogenetic clusters produced by phasome or core genome analyses were similar, indicating co-evolution of PV genes with the core genome. While conservation of PV clusters is high, with 76 % present in all meningococcal isolates, maintenance of an SSR is variable, ranging from conserved in all isolates to present only in a single cc, indicating differing evolutionary trajectories for each lineage. Diverse functional groups of PV genes were present across the meningococcal lineages; however, the majority directly or indirectly influence bacterial surface antigens and could impact on future vaccine development. Finally, we observe that meningococci have open pan phasomes, indicating ongoing evolution of PV gene content and a significant potential for adaptive changes in this clinically relevant genus.