The first laboratory confirmed invasive meningococcal disease of serogroup C with abdominal clinical presentation in Slovakia, 2019.

Acute abdominal clinical presentations as initial manifestation of meningococcal infection are uncommon and frequently provoked by hyperinvasive isolates of meningococci. 10% of patients infected by the meningococcal strain, that is on the rise in Europe, suffer from abdominal pain. We hereby report the first laboratory confirmed fatal case of an otherwise healthy adult male presented with acute abdominal pain during first 24-48 hours, masking Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) infection. In the National Reference Center for meningococci, in the blood of a man post-mortem, we identified N. meningitidis serogroup C using real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Subsequently, massivelly-parallel sequencing (MPS) was performed on isolated total DNA for pathogen confirmation and further investigation.

Rotavirus type profile in nosocomial and community infections in Western Slovakia.

The surveillance study of rotavirus gastroenteritis at the University Teaching Hospital Trencín area, Slovakia, during 2006-2011 confirmed that the genotype profile of circulating rotaviruses was not stable. While G1P[8] dominating genotype dropped from 75 to 7.3 % in the period 2009-2011, genotype G2P[4] that was not detected in 2009 raised to 45.1 % in 2011. Vaccination coverage rose from 4.4 to 22.1 % in the period 2008-2011. Among the community and hospital cases, we observed that the average age of patients with nosocomial infections was significantly less (10.6 months) than in the cases of community rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) cases. Compared to the nosocomial infection cases, the duration of the disease and the duration of hospitalization among the community cases were significantly longer by 0.22 and 3.63 days, respectively, during 2006-2011. Though the vaccination coverage was found to correlate with changes in the type of the circulating rotaviruses, the natural circulation in rotavirus genotypes may not be excluded as important factor contributing to the emergence of G2P[4] strain during the survey period.