IMD Exploration of age and region
Clinical diagnosis of IMD is difficult as the disease develops very rapidly from non-specific flu-like symptoms. The later stages of IMD, especially septicaemia, can be much more distinctive to a doctor, but a laboratory confirmation of diagnosis is still important. This confirmation is mostly done either by growing the meningococcus, a process called culture, or by detecting the genetic material, the DNA, of the meningococcus in the patient.
The age group of the patients and their geographical distribution is important in assisting the public health response to the disease. In England, like many high-income temperate countries, most disease is in small children, with elevated levels also seen in young adults and the elderly. IMD is nationally distributed, with some variation in rates in different regions.
There were 3,262 IMD cases, where a bacterium was recovered, across the 9 regions of England. Choose the epidemiological year using the drop down menu and explore the relationship between age group and the 9 geographical regions in England. Filter the data by choosing a specific age group or region, and see what changes in each epidemiological year. Hover your mouse pointer over a coloured bar to reveal the number of cases of the selected parameters.
| Epidemiological Year | Number of isolates | Isolates with unknown age group information | Isolates with unknown serogroup information | Isolates with unknown clonal complex information | Isolates with unknown region information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07/2010-06/2011 | 464 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2011-06/2012 | 370 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2012-06/2013 | 415 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2013-06/2014 | 367 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2014-06/2015 | 486 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2015-06/2016 | 496 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2016-06/2017 | 476 | 111 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 07/2017-06/2018 | 188 | 186 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| https://pubmlst.org/gmgl | |||||||||||