Children going for adenotonsillectomy, tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy will be approached to donate samples. Additional samples to be collected at this time may include saliva samples, urine samples, a blood sample and a nasal swab

Meningitis and septicaemia (blood poisoning) caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) remain important causes of death and disability amongst children and younger adults in the UK and elsewhere. The bacteria can be carried on the mucous membranes in the back of the nose and mouth without causing any symptoms. This so-called carriage state is found in around 10% of the population of the UK at any one time. The bacteria are spread through person to person contact and only occasionally does this spread lead to the development of meningitis and septicaemia rather than carriage. The reasons behind this are not clearly understood. A vaccine against meningococcus group C (Men C), one of five groups of the bacteria that can cause disease, was introduced into the UK in 1999 and led to a sharp drop in the rates of meningitis and septicaemia. The vaccine also led to a decrease in the rates of carriage of the bacteria. This suggests that the vaccine not only generates immune protection preventing meningitis and septicaemia but also generates immunity in the back of the nose and mouth preventing carriage. The way the vaccine generates this “mucosal immunity” is not known and is the topic of our research. This study is the first part of a research programme and aims to identify the way the vaccine works in the blood.

Improved diagnosis of meningococcal, pneumococcal and group A streptococcal infections

What makes the bug choose your child, how can we find it and how can we stop it? The study is trying to improve our understanding of why some children get sick when others don’t, even though they must have been exposed to the same bugs. We are also trying to develop ways of finding out what has caused an infection, using ways which don’t rely on finding the bug itself (one example of this would be to test urine for evidence of the bug for example). The other part of the study is to use the information we can get from children who are infected by these bugs to help develop vaccines to increase our ability to prevent infections in the first place.