The unexpected and unp- dictable occurrence of the disease in previously healthy children and young adults, its rapid progression, and the frequent occurrence of purpura fulminans with the resulting gangrene of limbs and digits and the requirement for mutilating s- gery, have all heightened both public and medical interest in the disease.

Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnosis.- Isolation, Culture, and Identification of Meningococci from Clinical Specimens.- PCR Diagnosis.- Detection of Meningococcal Antigen by Latex Agglutination.- Meningococcal Serology.- Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing.- Molecular Approach for the Study of Penicillin Resistance In Neisseria meningitidis.- Overview: Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Population Biology.- Serological Characterization.- Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis.- Nucleotide Sequencing of Antigen Genes of Neisseria meningitidis.- Multi-Locus Sequence Typing.- Capsular Operons.- Molecular Analysis of the Meningococcal LPS Expression.- Genome Sequencing and Annotation.- Representational Difference Analysis.- Managing Outbreaks.- Global Trends in Meningococcal Disease.- Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Population Biology.- Surveillance of Meningococcal Disease in Europe.- Global Surveillance for Meningococcal Disease.- Epidemiology of Meningococcal Disease in North America.- Computational Methods for Meningococcal Population Studies.- Clinical Studies.- Clinical Scoring Systems in Meningococcal Disease.- Quantitative Detection of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharides in Clinical Specimens.- Isolation and Analysis of Radiolabeled Meningococcal Endotoxin.- Cytokine Measurement In Vivo and In Vitro.- Cytokine Bioassays.- Molecular Analysis of Gene-Polymorphisms Affecting the Host Response to Infection.- Coagulation Studies.- Complement Pathways and Meningococcal Disease.- Evaluation of New Treatments for Meningococcal Disease.- Studies on the Effect of Neisserial Porins on Apoptosis of Mammalian Cells.- Molecular Recognition Mechanisms of Meningococci.- Experimental Nasopharyngeal Colonization by Neisseria meningitidis using Explant Organ Culture.- Invasion of the Central NervousSystem by Neisseria meningitidis.- Interactions of Meningococci with Endothelium.- A Promoter Probe Plasmid Based on Green Fluorescent Protein.- Signature-Tagged Mutagenesis.

Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations and is responsible for epidemics of meningococcal meningitis and septic shock in Africa and Asia. In Meningococcal Disease: Methods and Protocols, Andrew Pollard and Martin Maiden bring together a panel of leading authorities to produce a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of recent advances and knowledge about this much-feared disease. The review and methods-based chapters collected here provide essential information for diagnosis in the clinical microbiology laboratory, isolate characterization, clinical management, and control of meningococcal disease. They also examine the immunopathological mechanisms occurring in the acutely ill, host-pathogen interactions, and the possible components of meningococcus responsible for virulence. A companion volume, Meningococcal Vaccines, provides detailed methods for the design and evaluation of meningococcal vaccines. Comprehensive and authoritative, Meningococcal Disease: Methods and Protocols integrates the basic science and the clinical and epidemiological aspects of this terrible infectious disease to promote the deeper understanding needed to identify novel targets for therapeutic interventions and vaccines.

"The editors invited the most skilled specialists in the world, 95 contributors, to share with the readers their knowledge of many aspects of meningococcal disease....The book is a brilliant and comprehensive review of the most recent methods for investigation of meningococcal disease and Neisseria meningitidis. It also includes detailed protocols, which should contribute to standardization of meningococcal investigation in the whole world and should allow different laboratories to obtain comparable results. The book is an excellent source of references. It is highly recommended to microbiologists, epidemiologists and clinicians dealing with meningococcal disease." - Folia Microbiologia "The book claims to be "a comprehensive and authoritative review of meningococcal biology", "an interdisciplinary survey of recent advances and knowledge", to give "cutting-edge methods for the diagnosis, epidemiology and treatment of meningococcal disease", and it fully meets these standards. It has achieved its aim to join basic science with epidemiological and clinical aspects of the disease." - International Journal of Medical Microbiology