Surveillance of pneumococcal serotype 1 carriage during an outbreak of serotype 1 invasive pneumococcal disease in central Australia 2010-2012

View/ Open
Author(s)
Lai, Jana YR
Cook, Heather
Yip, Teem-Wing
Berthelsen, Jeanette
Gourley, Stephen
Krause, Vicki
Smith, Helen
Leach, Amanda J
Smith-Vaughan, Heidi
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: An outbreak of serotype 1 invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) occurred in Central Australia from
October 2010 to the latter part of 2012. Surveillance of serotype 1 carriage was conducted to determine
epidemiological features of asymptomatic carriage that could potentially be driving the outbreak.
Methods: 130 patients and accompanying persons presenting at Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department
consented to nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) collection. NPS were processed by standard methods, including culture,
pneumococcal lytA quantitative real-time PCR, serotype 1-specific real-time PCR and multi-locus sequence
typing ...
View more >Background: An outbreak of serotype 1 invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) occurred in Central Australia from October 2010 to the latter part of 2012. Surveillance of serotype 1 carriage was conducted to determine epidemiological features of asymptomatic carriage that could potentially be driving the outbreak. Methods: 130 patients and accompanying persons presenting at Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department consented to nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) collection. NPS were processed by standard methods, including culture, pneumococcal lytA quantitative real-time PCR, serotype 1-specific real-time PCR and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Results: Pneumococcal carriage was detected in 16% of participants. Carriage was highest in the under 10 year olds from remote communities surrounding Alice Springs (75%). Four NPS were positive for serotype 1 DNA by PCR; 3 were also culture-positive for serotype 1 pneumococci. Serotype 1 isolates had atypical colony morphology on primary culture. All serotype 1 carriers were healthy children 5 to 8 years of age from remote communities. By MLST, serotype 1 isolates were ST306, as were IPD isolates associated with this outbreak. Conclusions: During an outbreak of serotype 1 ST306 IPD, carriage of the outbreak strain was detected in 3% NPS collected. All carriers were healthy children 5 to 8 years of age.
View less >
View more >Background: An outbreak of serotype 1 invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) occurred in Central Australia from October 2010 to the latter part of 2012. Surveillance of serotype 1 carriage was conducted to determine epidemiological features of asymptomatic carriage that could potentially be driving the outbreak. Methods: 130 patients and accompanying persons presenting at Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department consented to nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) collection. NPS were processed by standard methods, including culture, pneumococcal lytA quantitative real-time PCR, serotype 1-specific real-time PCR and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Results: Pneumococcal carriage was detected in 16% of participants. Carriage was highest in the under 10 year olds from remote communities surrounding Alice Springs (75%). Four NPS were positive for serotype 1 DNA by PCR; 3 were also culture-positive for serotype 1 pneumococci. Serotype 1 isolates had atypical colony morphology on primary culture. All serotype 1 carriers were healthy children 5 to 8 years of age from remote communities. By MLST, serotype 1 isolates were ST306, as were IPD isolates associated with this outbreak. Conclusions: During an outbreak of serotype 1 ST306 IPD, carriage of the outbreak strain was detected in 3% NPS collected. All carriers were healthy children 5 to 8 years of age.
View less >
Journal Title
BMC Infectious Diseases
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
© 2013 Lai et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Subject
Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified
Microbiology
Clinical Sciences
Medical Microbiology