Objective. Determination of N. meningitidis serogroups isolated on the territory of the Republic of Belarus between 2011—2019.

Materials and methods. 148 N. meningitidis strains including 119 invasive and 29 non-invasive meningococci isolated from patients with meningococcal infection, carriers and contacted people from different regions of the Republic of Belarus between 2011—2019 were studied. The strains were cultivated on the VCNT agar in a CO2 incubator at 37°C and 5—10% CO2 for 20—24 hours. Additional identifying as well as serogenotyping was carried out by the real-time PCR.

Results. The Belarussian meningococci isolated during 9 years distributed among the serogroups as follows: MenB — 60.1%, MenC — 16.2%, MenW — 10.1%, MenA — 4.7%, MenY — 2.0%, MenZ — 1.4%, other serogroups — 5.4%. The MenY proportion was higher among the non-invasive isolates. The MenZ meningococci were isolated from the nasopharynx swabs of 2 adult men from Mogilev region. The MenB meningococci occurrence was higher in the group of children under 5 and the MenW ones – among adults. The greatest serogroup variety was found in Minsk and Mogilev region.

Conclusion. The serogroup structure of meningococci circulating among the population of Belarus was diversed. The Men B serogroup dominated throughout the country. In the same time in recent years, the Men W proportion increased and the Men A proportion decreased.