RECURRENT MENINGOCOCCAL MENINGITIS IN AN IRANIAN CONSCRIPT: A BRIEF REPORT

an etiologic agent of meningitisand sepsis, are a feared public healthemergency (1). Meningococcal menin-gitis is endemic throughout most of theworld; its annual incidence rate variesbetween 1 and 12 per 100,000 popu-lation. The rates of disease have beenon the increase because of epidemics in non-industrialized regions (2,3).Immunogenicity and safety trials ofmeningococcal polysaccharide vaccineshave been reported by the United States,Africa, and some developing countries(7,8). Although infants are at highestrisk (4) for serious meningococcal meningitis, epidemics have also beenreported among military personnel(5,6). In the Islamic Republic of Iran,mass immunization of conscripts withdivalent meningococcal vaccine has the potential to actively protect soldiersbefore they are dispatched to armytraining centers (7,8). However, arecently vaccinated conscript was hos-pitalized because of typical meningo-coccal meningitis. Thus, we describeresults of our investigation into thisunusual case.