A Streptococcus pneumoniae lineage usually associated with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) serotypes is the most common cause of serotype 35B invasive disease in South Africa, following routine use of PCV.

Pneumococcal serotype 35B is an important non-conjugate vaccine (non-PCV) serotype. Its continued emergence, post-PCV7 in the USA, was associated with expansion of a pre-existing 35B clone (clonal complex [CC] 558) along with post-PCV13 emergence of a non-35B clone previously associated with PCV serotypes (CC156). This study describes lineages circulating among 35B isolates in South Africa before and after PCV introduction. We also compared 35B isolates belonging to a predominant 35B lineage in South Africa (GPSC5), with isolates belonging to the same lineage in other parts of the world. Serotype 35B isolates that caused invasive pneumococcal disease in South Africa in 2005-2014 were characterized by whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Multi-locus sequence types and global pneumococcal sequence clusters (GPSCs) were derived from WGS data of 63 35B isolates obtained in 2005-2014. A total of 262 isolates that belong to GPSC5 (115 isolates from South Africa and 147 from other countries) that were sequenced as part of the global pneumococcal sequencing (GPS) project were included for comparison. Serotype 35B isolates from South Africa were differentiated into seven GPSCs and GPSC5 was most common (49 %, 31/63). While 35B was the most common serotype among GPSC5/CC172 isolates in South Africa during the PCV13 period (66 %, 29/44), 23F was the most common serotype during both the pre-PCV (80 %, 37/46) and PCV7 period (32 %, 8/25). Serotype 35B represented 15 % (40/262) of GPSC5 isolates within the global GPS database and 75 % (31/40) were from South Africa. The predominance of the GPSC5 lineage within non-vaccine serotype 35B, is possibly unique to South Africa and warrants further molecular surveillance of pneumococci

Changes in Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotype 1 following Introduction of PCV10 and PCV13: Findings from the PSERENADE Project

Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 1 (ST1) was an important cause of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) globally before the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) containing ST1 antigen. The Pneumococcal Serotype Replacement and Distribution Estimation (PSERENADE) project gathered ST1 IPD surveillance data from sites globally and aimed to estimate PCV10/13 impact on ST1 IPD incidence. We estimated ST1 IPD incidence rate ratios (IRRs) comparing the pre-PCV10/13 period to each post-PCV10/13 year by site using a Bayesian multi-level, mixed-effects Poisson regression and all-site IRRs using a linear mixed-effects regression (N = 45 sites). Following PCV10/13 introduction, the incidence rate (IR) of ST1 IPD declined among all ages. After six years of PCV10/13 use, the all-site IRR was 0.05 (95% credibility interval 0.04-0.06) for all ages, 0.05 (0.04-0.05) for <5 years of age, 0.08 (0.06-0.09) for 5-17 years, 0.06 (0.05-0.08) for 18-49 years, 0.06 (0.05-0.07) for 50-64 years, and 0.05 (0.04-0.06) for ≥65 years. PCV10/13 use in infant immunization programs was followed by a 95% reduction in ST1 IPD in all ages after approximately 6 years. Limited data availability from the highest ST1 disease burden countries using a 3+0 schedule constrains generalizability and data from these settings are needed

Global Landscape Review of Serotype-Specific Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Surveillance among Countries Using PCV10/13: The Pneumococcal Serotype Replacement and Distribution Estimation (PSERENADE) Project.

Serotype-specific surveillance for invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) is essential for assessing the impact of 10- and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV10/13). The Pneumococcal Serotype Replacement and Distribution Estimation (PSERENADE) project aimed to evaluate the global evidence to estimate the impact of PCV10/13 by age, product, schedule, and syndrome. Here we systematically characterize and summarize the global landscape of routine serotype-specific IPD surveillance in PCV10/13-using countries and describe the subset that are included in PSERENADE. Of 138 countries using PCV10/13 as of 2018, we identified 109 with IPD surveillance systems, 76 of which met PSERENADE data collection eligibility criteria. PSERENADE received data from most (n = 63, 82.9%), yielding 240,639 post-PCV10/13 introduction IPD cases. Pediatric and adult surveillance was represented from all geographic regions but was limited from lower income and high-burden countries. In PSERENADE, 18 sites evaluated PCV10, 42 PCV13, and 17 both; 17 sites used a 3 + 0 schedule, 38 used 2 + 1, 13 used 3 + 1, and 9 used mixed schedules. With such a sizeable and generally representative dataset, PSERENADE will be able to conduct robust analyses to estimate PCV impact and inform policy at national and global levels regarding adult immunization, schedule, and product choice, including for higher valency PCVs on the horizon

Correlation between Antibiotic Consumption and Resistance of Invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae

There is a lack of long-term studies that correlate different metrics of antibiotic consumption and resistance of invasive S. pneumoniae. The present study aims to investigate the correlation between national outpatients total antibiotic, penicillin and broad spectrum penicillins consumption expressed in daily doses per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID) with the ATC/DDDs, WHO version of 2019 (new version) and 2018 (old version), number of prescriptions per 1000 inhabitants per year (RxIDs) and number of packages per 1000 inhabitant per day (PIDs) with the resistance of invasive S. pneumoniae in Slovenia in the period from 2000 to 2018. The prevalence of penicillin resistance of invasive S. pneumoniae decreased by 47.13%, from 19.1% to 10.1%. Decline of resistance showed the highest correlation (R = 0.86) between RxIDs followed by PID (R = 0.85) and resistance of S. pneumoniae. Higher correlation between total use of antibiotics expressed in DID WHO version 2019 (R = 0.80) than for WHO version 2018 (R = 0.78) was found. Very high (R = 0.84) correlation between use of β-lactams expressed in PID, and RxIDs (R = 0.82) and reasonable (R = 0.59) correlation expressed in DIDs version 2019 was shown as well. The consumption of broad -spectrum penicillins (J01CA and J01CR02) expressed in PID (R = 0.72) and RxIDs (0.57) correlated significantly with the resistance of S. pneumoniae as well. A new finding of this study is that RxIDs correlated better with the resistance of S. pneumoniae than total consumption of antibiotics expressed in DID and significant correlations exist between use of broad-spectrum penicillins expressed in PID and RxIDs

Nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae and serotypes indentified among nursing home residents in comparison to the elderly and patients younger than 65 years living in domestic environment

In Slovenia, there is little data available on pneumococcal vaccination rates and no data on asymptomatic NPCR and serotypes in the population of nursing home residents in comparison to the elderly living in domestic environment, therefore the goal was to gain these data

Surface contamination with SARS-CoV-2: A systematic review

Producción CientíficaLittle is known about contaminated surfaces as a route of transmission for SARS-CoV- 2 and a systematic review is missing and urgently needed to provide guidelines for future research studies. As such, the aim of the present study was to review the current scientific knowledge and to summarize the existing studies in which SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in inanimate surfaces. This systematic review includes studies since the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, available in PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus. Duplicate publications were removed, and exclusion criteria was applied to eliminate unrelated studies, resulting in 37 eligible publications. The present study provides the first overview of SARS-CoV-2 detection in surfaces. The highest detection rates occurred in hospitals and healthcare facilities with COVID-19 patients. Contamination with SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces was detected in a wide range of facilities and surfaces. There is a lack of studies performing viability testing for SARS-CoV-2 recovered from surfaces, and consequently it is not yet possible to assess the potential for transmission via surfaces

Meningococcal serogroup Y disease in Europe: Continuation of high importance in some European regions in 2013.

International audienceNeisseria meningitidis or meningococcus is divided into 12 distinct serogroups of which A, B, C, W, X, and Y are medically most important and cause health problems in different parts of the world. The epidemiology of N. meningitidis is unpredictable over time and across geographic regions. Globally, serogroup A has been prevalent in the African "meningitis belt" whereas serogroup B and C have predominated in Europe. In a paper published earlier in this journal (1) , an increase in serogroup Y invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in some European countries was reported based on the epidemiological data for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Here, we report additional data from 30 European countries indicating that high or increased serogroup Y disease levels have continued in 2013 in certain regions of Europe. In the Western and Central Europe, there were no major changes in the proportion of serogroup Y IMD cases in 2013 compared to 2012. In the Scandinavian countries, proportion of serogroup Y disease remained high, ranging from 26% to 51% in 2013. This was in contrast to Baltic, Eastern and most Southern European countries, where the proportion of serogroup Y IMD was low similarly to previous years. For the last 2 decades, the mean age of patients affected by serogroup Y was 41 y for 7 countries from which data was available and 50% of cases were in patients aged 45 to 88 y. The age distribution of serogroup Y was bimodal and did not change significantly despite the increase of the total number and the proportion of serogroup Y IMD in some European regions

Centralized and decentralized wastewater-based epidemiology to infer COVID-19 transmission – A brief review

Producción CientíficaWastewater-based epidemiology has shown to be a promising and innovative approach to measure a wide variety of illicit drugs that are consumed in the communities. In the same way as for illicit drugs, wastewater-based epidemiology is a promising approach to understand the prevalence of viruses in a community-level. The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created an unprecedented burden on public health and diagnostic laboratories all over the world because of the need for massive laboratory testing. Many studies have shown the applicability of a centralized wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach, where samples are collected at WWTPs. A more recent concept is a decentralized approach for WBE where samples are collected at different points of the sewer system and at polluted water bodies. The second being particularly important in countries where there are insufficient connections from houses to municipal sewage pipelines and thus untreated wastewater is discharged directly in environmental waters. A decentralized approach can be used to focus the value of diagnostic tests in what we call targeted-WBE, by monitoring wastewater in parts of the population where an outbreak is likely to happen, such as student dorms, retirement homes and hospitals. A combination of centralized and decentralized WBE should be considered for an affordable, sustainable, and successful WBE implementation in high-, middle- and low-income countries.Junta de Castilla y León - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (projects CLU 2017-09, UIC315 and VA266P20

Meningococcal serogroup Y disease in Europe: Continuation of high importance in some European regions in 2013

Neisseria meningitidis or meningococcus is divided into 12 distinct serogroups of which A, B, C, W, X, and Y are medically most important and cause health problems in different parts of the world. The epidemiology of N. meningitidis is unpredictable over time and across geographic regions. Globally, serogoup A has been prevalent in the African meningitis belt whereas serogroup B and C have predominated in Europe. In a paper published earlier in this journal(1), an increase in serogroup Y invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in some European countries was reported based on the epidemiological data for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Here, we report additional data from 30 European countries indicating that high or increased serogroup Y disease levels have continued in 2013 in certain regions of Europe. In the Western and Central Europe, there were no major changes in the proportion of serogroup Y IMD cases in 2013 compared to 2012. In the Scandinavian countries, proportion of serogroup Y disease remained high, ranging from 26% to 51% in 2013. This was in contrast to Baltic, Eastern and most Southern European countries, where the proportion of serogroup Y IMD was low similarly to previous years. For the last 2 decades, the mean age of patients affected by serogroup Y was 41 y for 7 countries from which data was available and 50% of cases were in patients aged 45 to 88 y. The age distribution of serogroup Y was bimodal and did not change significantly despite the increase of the total number and the proportion of serogroup Y IMD in some European regions

Nine differentially expressed genes from a post mortem study and their association with suicidal status in a sample of suicide completers, attempters and controls

none16siSeveral lines of evidence indicate that suicidal behaviour is partly heritable, with multiple genes implicated in its aetiology. We focused on nine genes (S100A13, EFEMP1, PCDHB5, PDGFRB, CDCA7L, SCN2B, PTPRR, MLC1 and ZFP36) which we previously detected as differentially expressed in the cortex of suicide victims compared to controls. We investigated 84 variants within these genes in 495 suicidal subjects (299 completers and 196 attempters) and 1513 controls (109 post-mortem and 1404 healthy). We evaluated associations with: 1) suicidal phenotype; 2) possible endophenotypes for suicidal behaviour. Overall positive results did not survive the correction threshold. However, we found a nominally different distribution of EFEMP1 genotypes, alleles and haplotypes between suicidal subjects and controls, results that were partially replicated when we separately considered the subgroup of suicide completers and post-mortem controls. A weaker association emerged also for PTPRR. Both EFEMP1 and PTPRR genes were also related to possible endophenotypes for suicidal behaviour such as anger, depression-anxiety and fatigue. Because of the large number of analyses performed and the low significance values further replication are mandatory. Nevertheless, neurotrophic gene variants, in particular EFEMP1 and PTPRR, may have a role in the pathogenesis of suicidal behaviour.noneBalestri, Martina; Crisafulli, Concetta; Donato, Luigi; Giegling, Ina; Calati, Raffaella; Antypa, Niki; Schneider, Barbara; Marusic, Dragan; Tarozzi, Maria Eugenia; Marusic, Dorjan; Paragi, Metka; Hartmann, Annette M.; Konte, Bettina; Marsano, Agnese; Serretti, Alessandro; Rujescu, DanBalestri, Martina; Crisafulli, Concetta; Donato, Luigi; Giegling, Ina; Calati, Raffaella; Antypa, Niki; Schneider, Barbara; Marusic, Dragan; Tarozzi, Maria Eugenia; Marusic, Dorjan; Paragi, Metka; Hartmann, Annette M.; Konte, Bettina; Marsano, Agnese; Serretti, Alessandro; Rujescu, Da