Neisseria lactamica in pregnancy: an interview study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An interview study exploring the views of pregnant women towards a potential future study of Neisseria lactamica in pregnancy
IRAS ID
256198
Contact name
Christine Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 23 days
Research summary
Neisseria meningitidis is a bacterium that grows in the nose of approximately 10% of the population. While is usually does not usually cause a problem, it can cause serious infections such as bacterial meningitis or sepsis. These are severe illnesses that more commonly affect children and have an associated death rate of 8%. While we have vaccines to protect against meningitis, they do not protect against all types of the bacteria that cause it and are only given from two months of age, so do not protect new-born babies.
Neisseria lactamica is a bacteria related to N.meningitidis, which also colonises (present without causing clinical illness) peoples’ noses. This does not cause disease and there is evidence that during an outbreak of meningitis, people who were colonised with N.lactamica less commonly developed meningitis. More recent studies have shown that if you artificially inoculate someone with N.lactamica it displaces N.meningitidis and prevents it from growing in the future.
Babies’ noses are covered in a layer of bugs call the ‘microbiome’. These are mostly harmless, and often come from the babies’ mother. One of the bugs that can form part of the babies’ microbiome is N.lactamica, but is not always present.
Given that despite vaccines, people still die from bacterial meningitis, we want to explore other avenues to protect children from N.meningitidis. It may be that we can alter the microbiome of mothers and babies to protect them from N.meningitidis. However, little research in this area has been done before. A major problem for any piece of research like this is agreement from pregnant women to take part. Therefore, we want to interview pregnant women to determine their views of this potential study, and to explore the factors that would encourage or discourage participation.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0356
Date of REC Opinion
19 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion