Multiple introductions of multidrug-resistant typhoid associated with acute infection and asymptomatic carriage, Kenya
Abstract
Background: Understanding the dynamics of infection and carriage of typhoid in endemic settings is critical to finding solutions to prevention and control.
Methods: In a 3 year case-control study, we investigated typhoid among children aged <16 years (4,670 febrile cases and 8,549 age matched controls) living in an informal settlement, Nairobi, Kenya.
Results: 148 S. Typhi isolates from cases and 95 from controls (stool culture) were identified; a carriage frequency of 1%. Whole-genome sequencing showed 97% of cases and 88% of controls were genotype 4.3.1 (Haplotype 58), with the majority of each (76% and 88%) being multidrug-resistant strains in 3 sublineages of H58 genotype (East Africa 1 (EA1), EA2, and EA3), with sequences from cases and carriers intermingled.
Conclusions: The high rate of multidrug-resistant H58 S.Typhi, and the close phylogenetic relationships between cases and controls, provides evidence for the role of carriers as a reservoir for the community spread of typhoid in this setting.
Funding: National Institutes of Health (R01AI099525); Wellcome Trust (106158/Z/14/Z); European Commission (TyphiNET No 845681); National Institute for Health Research (NIHR); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1175797).
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files.Raw Illumina sequence reads have been submitted to the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) under accession PRJEB19289. Individual sequence accession numbers are listed in Table S1
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ARG-ANNOT, a new bioinformatic tool to discover antibiotic resistance genes in bacterial genomes.Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2014; 58: 212-20.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (R01AI099525)
- Samuel Kariuki
Wellcome Trust (106158/Z/14/Z)
- Zoe A Dyson
European Commission (TyphiNET No 845681)
- Zoe A Dyson
National Institute for Health Research (AMR Theme)
- Gordon Dougan
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1175797)
- Kathryn E Holt
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Joseph Lewnard, University of California Berkeley, United States
Ethics
Human subjects: The study was approved by the Scientific and Ethics Review Unit (SERU) of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) (Scientific Steering Committee No. 2076). All parents and/or guardians of participating children were informed of the study objectives and voluntary written consent was sought and obtained before inclusion.
Version history
- Received: February 24, 2021
- Preprint posted: March 10, 2021 (view preprint)
- Accepted: September 8, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: September 13, 2021 (version 1)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: September 15, 2021 (version 2)
- Accepted Manuscript updated: September 17, 2021 (version 3)
- Version of Record published: October 6, 2021 (version 4)
Copyright
© 2021, Kariuki et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Further reading
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- Ecology
- Epidemiology and Global Health
Non-pharmaceutical interventions implemented to block SARS-CoV-2 transmission in early 2020 led to global reductions in the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). By contrast, most European countries reported an increase in antibiotic resistance among invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates from 2019 to 2020, while an increasing number of studies reported stable pneumococcal carriage prevalence over the same period. To disentangle the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on pneumococcal epidemiology in the community setting, we propose a mathematical model formalizing simultaneous transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and antibiotic-sensitive and -resistant strains of S. pneumoniae. To test hypotheses underlying these trends five mechanisms were built into the model and examined: (1) a population-wide reduction of antibiotic prescriptions in the community, (2) lockdown effect on pneumococcal transmission, (3) a reduced risk of developing an IPD due to the absence of common respiratory viruses, (4) community azithromycin use in COVID-19 infected individuals, (5) and a longer carriage duration of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcal strains. Among 31 possible pandemic scenarios involving mechanisms individually or in combination, model simulations surprisingly identified only two scenarios that reproduced the reported trends in the general population. They included factors (1), (3), and (4). These scenarios replicated a nearly 50% reduction in annual IPD, and an increase in antibiotic resistance from 20% to 22%, all while maintaining a relatively stable pneumococcal carriage. Exploring further, higher SARS-CoV-2 R0 values and synergistic within-host virus-bacteria interaction mechanisms could have additionally contributed to the observed antibiotic resistance increase. Our work demonstrates the utility of the mathematical modeling approach in unraveling the complex effects of the COVID-19 pandemic responses on AMR dynamics.
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- Epidemiology and Global Health
Background:
The aim of our study was to test the hypothesis that the community contact tracing strategy of testing contacts in households immediately instead of at the end of quarantine had an impact on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools in Reggio Emilia Province.
Methods:
We analysed surveillance data on notification of COVID-19 cases in schools between 1 September 2020 and 4 April 2021. We have applied a mediation analysis that allows for interaction between the intervention (before/after period) and the mediator.
Results:
Median tracing delay decreased from 7 to 3.1 days and the percentage of the known infection source increased from 34–54.8% (incident rate ratio-IRR 1.61 1.40–1.86). Implementation of prompt contact tracing was associated with a 10% decrease in the number of secondary cases (excess relative risk –0.1 95% CI –0.35–0.15). Knowing the source of infection of the index case led to a decrease in secondary transmission (IRR 0.75 95% CI 0.63–0.91) while the decrease in tracing delay was associated with decreased risk of secondary cases (1/IRR 0.97 95% CI 0.94–1.01 per one day of delay). The direct effect of the intervention accounted for the 29% decrease in the number of secondary cases (excess relative risk –0.29 95%–0.61 to 0.03).
Conclusions:
Prompt contact testing in the community reduces the time of contact tracing and increases the ability to identify the source of infection in school outbreaks. Although there are strong reasons for thinking it is a causal link, observed differences can be also due to differences in the force of infection and to other control measures put in place.
Funding:
This project was carried out with the technical and financial support of the Italian Ministry of Health – CCM 2020 and Ricerca Corrente Annual Program 2023.