Meningococcal septicemia and meningitis continue to be important causes of devastating illness, death, and long-term disability in both developed and resource-poor countries of the world. Few diseases have attracted as much public attention, or are as feared by parents and family members, as well as the medical staff who have to care for affected patients. 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. Over the past two decades there has been a rapid increase in knowledge of many aspects of meningococcal disease as a result of intensive efforts by workers in many different fields: clinicians have studied the early presenting features and acute pathophysiology of the disorder; clinical scientists have explored the immunopathological mechanisms responsible for disease and have highlighted the important roles played by the host inflammatory response and pro-inflammatory cytokines in mediating damage to blood vessels and organs; microbiologists have developed new diagnostic methods; public health phy- cians and epidemiologists have improved surveillance techniques with the help of molecular tools provided by bacterial population biologists; and basic sci- tists have used the powerful new tools in molecular and cell biology to elucidate virulence mechanisms.

Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnosis Keith Cartwright Isolation, Culture, and Identification of Meningococci from Clinical Specimens Per Olcén and Hans Fredlund PCR Diagnosis Malcolm Guiver and Ray Borrow Detection of Meningococcal Antigen by Latex Agglutination Michael A. Sobanski, Rosemary A. Barnes, and W. Terence Coakley Meningococcal Serology Stephen J. Gray, Ray Borrow, and Edward B. Kaczmarski Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Colin Block Molecular Approach for the Study of Penicillin Resistance in Neisseria Meningitidis Luisa Arreaza and Julio A. Vázquez Overview: Epidemiology, Surveillance and Population Biology Martin C. J. Maiden and Norman T. Begg Serological Characterization Betsy Kuipers, Germie van den Dobbelsteen, Elisabeth Wedege, and Loek van Alphen Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis Mark Achtman and Giovanna Morelli Nucleotide Sequencing of Antigen Genes of Neisseria Meningitidis Rachel Urwin Multi-Locus Sequence Typing Keith A. Jolley Capsular Operons Ulrich Vogel, Heike Claus, and Matthias Frosch Molecular Analysis of the Meningococcal LPS Expression Michael P. Jennings, Andrew W. Berrington, and E. Richard Moxon Genome Sequencing and Annotation Alex C. Jeffries, Nigel J. Saunders, and Derek W. Hood Representational Difference Analysis Lucas D. Bowler, Aldert Bart, and Arie van der Ende Managing Outbreaks: The Public Health Response James M. Stuart Global Trends in Meningococcal Disease Dominique A. Caugant Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Population Biology: Carriage Studies Keith Cartwright Surveillance of Meningococcal Disease in Europe Norman Noah Global Surveillance for Meningococcal Disease Nancy E.Rosenstein Epidemiology of Meningococcal Disease in North America Andrew J. Pollard, David Scheifele, and Nancy Rosenstein Computational Methods for Meningococcal Population Studies Keith A. Jolley and Rachel Urwin Clinical Studies and Host-Pathogen Interactions F. Andrew I. Riordan and Andrew J. Pollard Clinical Scoring Systems in Meningococcal Disease Marino Festa and Bert Derkx Quantitative Detection of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharides in Clinical Specimens Petter Brandtzaeg, Reidun Øvstebø, and Peter Kierulf Isolation and Analysis of Radiolabeled Meningococcal Endotoxin Peter C. Giardina, Jerrold A. Weiss, Brad W. Gibson, and Michael A. Apicella Cytokine Measurement In Vivo and In Vitro Marcel van Deuren and Petter Brandtzaeg Cytokine Bioassays Nina-Beate Liabakk, Anders Waage, Egil Lien, Jørgen Stenvik, and Terje Espevik Molecular Analysis of Gene-Polymorphisms Affecting the Host Response to Infection Rudi G. J. Westendorp and Tom W.J. Huizinga Coagulation Studies Jan A. Hazelzet, C. Erik Hack, and Ronald de Groot Complement Pathways and Meningococcal Disease: Diagnostic Aspects Anders G. Sjöholm, Lennart Truedsson, and Jens C. Jensenius Evaluation of New Treatments for Meningococcal Disease Simon Nadel, Iain Macintosh, and Michael Levin Studies on the Effect of Neisserial Porins on Apoptosis of Mammalian Cells Paola Massari and Lee M. Wetzler Molecular Recognition Mechanisms of Meningococci: Identifying Receptor-Ligand Pairs Involved in Microbe-Host Interactions Mumtaz Virji and Laura Serino Experimental Nasopharyngeal Colonization by Neisseria Meningitidis Using Explant Organ Culture Robert C. Read and Linda Goodwin Invasion of the Central Nervous System by Neisseria Meningitidis Colin Tinsley and Xavier