National Reference Laboratory for Meningococcal Infections
30. September 2015 | MUDr.Pavla Křížová,CSc.
The NRL is accredited to ČSN EN ISO/IEC 17025 as a test laboratory and to ČSN EN ISO 15189 as a public health laboratory by the Czech Accreditation Institute.
Head: Pavla Křížová, M.D., Ph.D.
- verifies the identification of Neisseria, N. meningitidis and serogrouping results as referred by microbiology laboratories in the Czech Republic;
- performs molecular typing (MLST, PorA, FetA, PenA, MenB vaccine antigen genes) of N. meningitidis isolates from microbiology laboratories in the Czech Republic;
- maintains the collection of N. meningitidis strains from invasive meningococcal disease, healthy carriers and respiratory diseases (more than 5000 isolates collected since 1971);
- maintains the database of microbiological, epidemiological, and clinical data related to the collection of N. meningitidis strains;
- performs PCR detection and typing of N. meningitidis, H. influenzae, and S. pneumoniae from clinical specimens;
- cooperates with the NRL for Antibiotics in N. meningitidis antimicrobial susceptibility testing;
- organizes the nationwide invasive meningococcal disease surveillance and processes the data submitted;
- provides background data for the anti-meningococcal vaccination strategy in the Czech Republic;
- has been involved in the nationwide external quality assessment schemes (EQAS);
- provides postgraduate lecturing and training;
- participates in the international projects EMGM (European Monitoring Group on Meningococci), MenNet (Impact of Meningococcal Epidemiology and Population Biology on Public Health in Europe), IBD-LabNet (Invasive Bacterial Disease-Laboratory Network);
- reports data to The European Union Invasive Bacterial Infections Surveillance Network (EU-IBIS), The European Surveillance System (TESSy), global database of N. meningitidis multilocus sequence typing (MLST), global database of non-capsular antigen sequence typing and DNA sequencing of penicillin resistance genes of N. meningitidis, and EMERT (European Meningococcal Epidemiology in Real Time);
- has been involved in international projects on the development of the vaccine against N. meningitidis;
- successfully participates in the international external quality assessment schemes (EQAS).