scholarly journals Cryptococcus deuterogattii VGIIa infection associated with travel to the Pacific Northwest outbreak region in an anti-GM-CSF autoantibody positive patient in the United States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelly Applen Clancey ◽  
Emily J. Ciccone ◽  
Marco A. Coelho ◽  
Joie Davis ◽  
Li Ding ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Pacific Northwest (PNW), Vancouver Island, Oregon, and Washington have been the location of an ongoing Cryptococcus gattii outbreak since the 1990s, and there is evidence that the outbreak is expanding along the West Coast into California. Here we report a clinical case of a 69-year-old, HIV-negative man from North Carolina who was diagnosed with a fungal brain mass by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and pathology. He had traveled to Seattle and Vancouver three years earlier and Costa Rica four months prior to presentation. Phenotypic evidence shows the fungal mass isolated from the patient’s brain is C. gattii. In agreement with the phenotypic results, MLST provides genotypic evidence that assigns the infecting organism within in the C. gattii species complex and belonging to the C. deuterogattii VGIIa clade. Whole genome sequencing revealed >99.99% identity to the C. deuterogattii reference strain R265, indicating that the infecting strain is derived from the highly clonal outbreak strains in the PNW. We conclude the patient acquired the C. gattii infection during his travel to region three years prior and the infection was dormant for an extended period of time before causing disease. The patient tested positive for anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) autoantibodies, supporting earlier reports that implicate these autoantibodies as a risk factor a risk factor associated with C. gattii infection.ImportanceMortality rates associated with C. gattii infections are estimated to be between 13% and 33% depending on an individual’s predisposition, and C. gattii has caused more at least 39 deaths in the PNW region. There have been four other international travel cases reported in patients from Europe and Asia with travel history to the PNW, but this study describes the first North American travel who acquired C. deuterogattii infection presenting within the United States, and the first case of a C. deuterogattii outbreak infection associated with anti-GM-CSF autoantibodies. Early and accurate diagnoses are important for disease prevention, treatment, and control of infectious diseases. Continual reporting of C. deuterogattii infections is necessary to raise awareness of the ongoing outbreak in the PNW and alert travelers and physicians to the endemic areas with potential risks.

Author(s):  
Joseph R. Fauver ◽  
Mary E. Petrone ◽  
Emma B. Hodcroft ◽  
Kayoko Shioda ◽  
Hanna Y. Ehrlich ◽  
...  

SummarySince its emergence and detection in Wuhan, China in late 2019, the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has spread to nearly every country around the world, resulting in hundreds of thousands of infections to date. The virus was first detected in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States in January, 2020, with subsequent COVID-19 outbreaks detected in all 50 states by early March. To uncover the sources of SARS-CoV-2 introductions and patterns of spread within the U.S., we sequenced nine viral genomes from early reported COVID-19 patients in Connecticut. Our phylogenetic analysis places the majority of these genomes with viruses sequenced from Washington state. By coupling our genomic data with domestic and international travel patterns, we show that early SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Connecticut was likely driven by domestic introductions. Moreover, the risk of domestic importation to Connecticut exceeded that of international importation by mid-March regardless of our estimated impacts of federal travel restrictions. This study provides evidence for widespread, sustained transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within the U.S. and highlights the critical need for local surveillance.


mBio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelly Applen Clancey ◽  
Emily J. Ciccone ◽  
Marco A. Coelho ◽  
Joie Davis ◽  
Li Ding ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe region encompassing the Pacific Northwest (PNW), Vancouver Island, Oregon, and Washington has been the location of an ongoingCryptococcus gattiioutbreak since the 1990s, and there is evidence that the outbreak is expanding along the West Coast into California. Here we report a clinical case of a 69-year-old, HIV-negative man from North Carolina who was diagnosed with a fungal brain mass by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and pathology. He had traveled to Seattle and Vancouver 3 years earlier and to Costa Rica 4 months prior to presentation. Phenotypic evidence showed that the fungal mass isolated from the patient’s brain representedC. gattii. In agreement with the phenotypic results, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) provided genotypic evidence that assigned the infecting organism within theC. gattiispecies complex and to theC. deuterogattiiVGIIa clade. Whole-genome sequencing revealed >99.99% identity with theC. deuterogattiireference strain R265, indicating that the infecting strain is derived from the highly clonal outbreak strains in the PNW. We conclude that the patient acquired theC. gattiiinfection during his travel to the region 3 years prior and that the infection was dormant for an extended period of time before causing disease. The patient tested positive for anti-granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) autoantibodies, supporting earlier reports that implicate these autoantibodies as a risk factor associated withC. gattiiinfection.IMPORTANCEMortality rates associated withC. gattiiinfections are estimated to be between 13% and 33%, depending on an individual’s predisposition, andC. gattiihas caused at least 39 deaths in the PNW region. There have been four other international travel cases reported in patients from Europe and Asia with travel history to the PNW, but this report describes the first North American traveler who acquiredC. deuterogattiiinfection presenting within the United States and the first case of aC. deuterogattiioutbreak infection associated with anti-GM-CSF autoantibodies. Early and accurate diagnoses are important for disease prevention and treatment and for control of infectious diseases. Continual reporting ofC. deuterogattiiinfections is necessary to raise awareness of the ongoing outbreak in the PNW and to alert travelers and physicians to the areas of endemicity with potential risks.


2016 ◽  
Vol 148 (5) ◽  
pp. 616-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.R. Echegaray ◽  
R.N. Stougaard ◽  
B. Bohannon

AbstractEuxestonotus error (Fitch) (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) is considered part of the natural enemy complex of the wheat midge Sitodiplosis mosellana (Géhin) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). Although previously reported in the United States of America, there is no record for this species outside the state of New York since 1865. A survey conducted in the summer of 2015 revealed that E. error is present in northwestern Montana and is likely playing a role in the suppression of wheat midge populations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 119-143
Author(s):  
Melanie C. Ross

Chapter 5 explores the Vineyard movement, one of the fastest-growing church movements in the United States, which is committed to holding together the “already” and “not yet” of the Kingdom of God in worship. In addition to looking for a dramatic, miraculous inbreaking of the Holy Spirit, there is a less dramatic but equally formative influence at work in worship: the Quaker notion of “gospel order” and its accompanying understanding of ethics. These commitments are tested at “Koinonia Vineyard,” a congregation located in the Pacific Northwest, where one African American member wrestles with her vision of activism and her Caucasian pastor’s desire for the congregation to remain politically neutral during a time of national racial unrest.


Weed Science ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 34 (S1) ◽  
pp. 2-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Lee

Rush skeletonweed (Chondrilla junceaL. CHOJU) infestations occur along the eastern seaboard and in several western states of the United States. This Eurasian species was inadvertently introduced prior to 1870, with established stands first reported in Maryland and West Virginia (16). These infestations (16) were assessed as lacking aggressive characteristics and posed little threat as a problem weed. Although rush skeletonweed was discovered in the Pacific Northwest as early as 1938, the species was not recognized as a potential weed problem until nearly three decades later (27). Subsequent surveys revealed that infestations occupied over 2.3 million ha in California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington (6). Attempts to generate support for an organized control program in Idaho were met with little enthusiasm during the 1960's.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Martinez-Urtaza ◽  
Ronny van Aerle ◽  
Michel Abanto ◽  
Julie Haendiges ◽  
Robert A. Myers ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the leading cause of seafood-related infections with illnesses undergoing a geographic expansion. In this process of expansion, the most fundamental change has been the transition from infections caused by local strains to the surge of pandemic clonal types. Pandemic clone sequence type 3 (ST3) was the only example of transcontinental spreading until 2012, when ST36 was detected outside the region where it is endemic in the U.S. Pacific Northwest causing infections along the U.S. northeast coast and Spain. Here, we used genome-wide analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the V. parahaemolyticus ST36 clone over the course of its geographic expansion during the previous 25 years. The origin of this lineage was estimated to be in ~1985. By 1995, a new variant emerged in the region and quickly replaced the old clone, which has not been detected since 2000. The new Pacific Northwest (PNW) lineage was responsible for the first cases associated with this clone outside the Pacific Northwest region. After several introductions into the northeast coast, the new PNW clone differentiated into a highly dynamic group that continues to cause illness on the northeast coast of the United States. Surprisingly, the strains detected in Europe in 2012 diverged from this ancestral group around 2000 and have conserved genetic features present only in the old PNW lineage. Recombination was identified as the major driver of diversification, with some preliminary observations suggesting a trend toward a more specialized lifestyle, which may represent a critical element in the expansion of epidemics under scenarios of coastal warming. IMPORTANCE Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio cholerae represent the only two instances of pandemic expansions of human pathogens originating in the marine environment. However, while the current pandemic of V. cholerae emerged more than 50 years ago, the global expansion of V. parahaemolyticus is a recent phenomenon. These modern expansions provide an exceptional opportunity to study the evolutionary process of these pathogens at first hand and gain an understanding of the mechanisms shaping the epidemic dynamics of these diseases, in particular, the emergence, dispersal, and successful introduction in new regions facilitating global spreading of infections. In this study, we used genomic analysis to examine the evolutionary divergence that has occurred over the course of the most recent transcontinental expansion of a pathogenic Vibrio, the spreading of the V. parahaemolyticus sequence type 36 clone from the region where it is endemic on the Pacific coast of North America to the east coast of the United States and finally to the west coast of Europe. IMPORTANCE Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio cholerae represent the only two instances of pandemic expansions of human pathogens originating in the marine environment. However, while the current pandemic of V. cholerae emerged more than 50 years ago, the global expansion of V. parahaemolyticus is a recent phenomenon. These modern expansions provide an exceptional opportunity to study the evolutionary process of these pathogens at first hand and gain an understanding of the mechanisms shaping the epidemic dynamics of these diseases, in particular, the emergence, dispersal, and successful introduction in new regions facilitating global spreading of infections. In this study, we used genomic analysis to examine the evolutionary divergence that has occurred over the course of the most recent transcontinental expansion of a pathogenic Vibrio, the spreading of the V. parahaemolyticus sequence type 36 clone from the region where it is endemic on the Pacific coast of North America to the east coast of the United States and finally to the west coast of Europe.


Plant Disease ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey J. du Toit ◽  
Mike L. Derie ◽  
Pablo Hernandez-Perez

There are no previous reports of Verticillium wilt in fresh and processing spinach (Spinacia oleracea) crops in the United States. In 2002, a hybrid spinach seed crop in the Pacific Northwest developed late-season wilt symptoms. Assays of the harvested seed and stock seed of the male and female parents revealed 59.5, 44.0, and 1.5%, respectively, were infected with Verticillium dahliae. Assays of 13 stock or commercial seed lots grown in 2002 and 62 commercial lots harvested in 2003 in Denmark, Holland, New Zealand, and the United States revealed the prevalence of Verticillium spp. in commercial spinach seed. Sixty-eight lots (89%) were infected with Verticillium spp. at incidences ranging from 0.3 to 84.8%. Five spinach seed isolates of V. dahliae were pathogenic on each of three spinach cultivars by root-dip inoculation. V. dahliae was detected on 26.4% of the seed from 7 of 11 inoculated plants but on none of the seed from 6 control plants, demonstrating systemic movement of V. dahliae. Seed-to-seed transmission was also demonstrated by planting naturally infected seed lots. This is the first report of Verticillium wilt of spinach in the primary region of spinach seed production in the United States.


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-294
Author(s):  
Krystyn R. Moon

This essay explores the experiences and debates surrounding preparatory schools for Chinese students in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. These institutions attempted to expand educational opportunities for poorer Chinese students who might otherwise not have had a chance to go to school; however, most of these children also had families in the United States, who supported their children's education but also needed their help to sustain their families. American laws banned most forms of Chinese immigration, and families had to carefully maneuver through federal policies to enter the country as students, often turning to European Americans-who were invested in expanding U.S. involvement in China-for support. Because of anti-Chinese sentiments, consular and immigration authorities questioned these programs, making them difficult to sustain. Ultimately, the interactions between immigration and consular officials, education boosters, and Chinese students were integral to the development of preparatory schools for other international students in the twentieth century.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 447-456
Author(s):  
Changyou Sun ◽  
Jean M. Daniels ◽  
Kate C. Marcille

Softwood logs comprise a large portion of forest product exports from the United States. Most of these exports have occurred between the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and several Asian countries. In this study, the extent and degree of market integration of softwood log exports from 1996 to 2018 are examined by co-integration analyses and permanent–transitory decomposition. Softwood log exports to Japan and South Korea appear to be in the same economic market and show a high degree of integration, while trade between the United States and China has evolved more independently. A detailed analysis is conducted on five prices related to Japan and South Korea with full-time coverage, and one common integrating factor is found and estimated. The price of export from the Columbia-Snake Customs District to Japan is identified as the driving force. Price responses to market shocks usually occur within four months. These findings have implications for government agencies and participants in the market of softwood log trade.


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