Surveillance of Australian Hajj pilgrims for carriage of potentially pathogenic bacteria: Data from two pilot studies

Table 1 The primer sequences for Neisseria meningitidis

Serotype	Gene target	Primer sequences	Product size (bp)
A	orf-2	F: CGCAATAGGTGTATATATTCTTCC;	400
		R: CGTAATAGTTTCGTATGCCTTCTT
B	siaD	F: GGATCATTTCAGTGTTTTCCACCA; R: GCATGCTGGAGGAATAAGCATTAA	450
C	siaD	F: TCAAATGAGTTTGCGAATAGAAGGT; R: CAATCACGATTTGCCCAATTGAC	250
W135	siaD	F: CAGAAAGTGAGGGATTTCCATA; R: CACAACCATTTTCATTATAGTTACTGT	120
Y	siaD	F: CTCAAAGCGAAGGCTTTGGTTA; R: CTGAAGCGTTTTCATTATAATTGCTAA	120

Orf2: Open reading frame 2; siaD: Polysialyltransferase gene.

Table 2 Demographics of participants (during and post-Hajj, n = 246)

Attributes	During Hajj n (%)	Post-Hajj n (%)
Gender
Female	111 (60.7)	30 (32.3)
Male	72 (39.3)	63 (67.7)
Age in years
0-18	0	1 (1)
19-34	38 (20.8)	17 (18.3)
35-49	58 (31.7)	52 (55.9)
50-64	28 (15.3)	8 (8.6)
≥ 65	1 (0.6)	0
Did not disclose	58 (31.7)	15 (16.1)
Meningococcal vaccine uptake
Not vaccinated	0	4 (4.3)
Meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine	144 (78.7)	48 (51.6)
Meningococcal Conjugate vaccine	39 (21.3)	41 (44.1)
Pneumococcal vaccine uptake
Not vaccinated	145 (79.2)	55 (59.1)
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13)	38 (20.8)	38 (40.9)
Facemasks use
Used facemasks	76 (41.5)	32 (34.4)
Did not use facemasks	92 (50.3)	59 (63.4)
Did not disclose	15 (8.2)	2 (2.2)

PCV13: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 13-valent.

Table 3 Carriage rate of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Staphylococcus aureus

	During Hajj		Post-Hajj	P1
	First day of Mina (NAT)	Last day of Mina (NAT)	Standard culture
S. pneumoniae	1/10	26/183	1/93	< 0.01
N. meningitidis	--	1/183	2/93	0.26
S. aureus	--	--	17/93

¹P value is for the difference in carriage detection rates for the last day of Mina vs post-Hajj by standard culture. NAT: Nucleic acid testing; N. meningitidis: Neisseria meningitidis; S. pneumoniae: Streptococcus pneumoniae; S. aureus: Staphylococcus aureus.

Table 4 Pneumococcal carriage rates according to the uptake of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in first phase of study

	PCR positive for pneumococci n (%)	PCR negative for pneumococci n (%)	Total
PCV13	4 (10.5)	34 (89.5)	38
No PCV13	22 (15.2)	123 (84.8)	145
Total	26 (14.2)	157 (85.8)	183

PCV13: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 13-valent.