Abstract
To know the types of meningococcal strains in Spain, we serotyped and subtyped 743 Neisseria meningitidis isolates recovered between 1990 and 1992 from patients. A great number of serogroup B, serogroup C and non-groupable meningococci reacted with the serotyping reagents while many serogroup C and non-groupable isolates did not react with the serosubtyping reagents (78.2% and 54.8% respectively); only 8.9% of serogroup B meningococci were non-subtypeable (NST). Distribution of serotypes was similar in serogroup C and in non-groupable strains. Isolates showed great variability in antigenic phenotypes (71 in serogroup B, 20 in serogroup C and 25 in non-groupable meningococci). The most frequent antigenic combinations were 4:P1.15 (39.8%) in serogroup B, 2b:NST (55.8%) in serogroup C and 2b:NST (35.6%) in non-groupable meningococci.