scholarly journals Evaluating the Timeliness of Enteric Disease Surveillance in British Columbia, Canada, 2012-13

Author(s):  
Eleni Galanis ◽  
Marsha Taylor ◽  
Kamila Romanowski ◽  
Olga Bitzikos ◽  
Jennifer Jeyes ◽  
...  

Timely surveillance of enteric diseases is necessary to identify and control cases and outbreaks. Our objective was to evaluate the timeliness of enteric disease surveillance in British Columbia, Canada, compare these results to other settings, and recommend improvements. In 2012 and 2013, information was collected from case report forms and laboratory information systems on 2615Salmonella, shigatoxin-producingE. coli,Shigella, andListeriainfections. Twelve date variables representing the surveillance process from onset of symptoms to case interview and final laboratory results were collected, and intervals were measured. The median time from onset of symptoms to reporting subtyping results to BC epidemiologists was 26–36 days and from onset of symptoms to case interview was 12–14 days. Our findings were comparable to the international literature except for a longer time (up to 29 day difference) to reporting of PFGE results to epidemiologists in BC. Such a delay may impact our ability to identify and solve outbreaks. Several process and system changes were implemented which should improve the timeliness of enteric disease surveillance.

2018 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Ori ◽  
E. H. Takagi ◽  
T. S. Andrade ◽  
B. T. Miguel ◽  
M. C. Cergole-Novella ◽  
...  

AbstractDiarrhoeagenicEscherichia coli(DEC) is a leading cause of infectious diarrhoea worldwide. In recent years,Escherichia albertiihas also been implicated as a cause of human enteric diseases. This study describes the occurrence ofE. colipathotypes and serotypes associated with enteric illness and haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) isolated in Brazil from 2011 to 2016. Pathotypes isolated included enteropathogenicE. coli(EPEC), enteroaggregativeE. coli(EAEC), enterotoxigenicE. coli(ETEC), enteroinvasiveE. coli(EIEC) and Shiga toxin-producingE. coli(STEC). PCR of stool enrichments for DEC pathotypes was employed, andE. albertiiwas also sought. O:H serotyping was performed on all DEC isolates. A total of 683 DEC and 10E. albertiistrains were isolated from 5047 clinical samples. The frequencies of DEC pathotypes were 52.6% (359/683) for EPEC, 32.5% for EAEC, 6.3% for ETEC, 4.4% for EIEC and 4.2% for STEC. DEC strains occurred in patients from 3 months to 96 years old, but EPEC, EAEC and STEC were most prevalent among children. Both typical and atypical isolates of EPEC and EAEC were recovered and presented great serotype heterogeneity. HUS cases were only associated with STEC serotype O157:H7. TwoE. albertiiisolates belonged to serogroup O113 and one had thestx2f gene. The higher prevalence of atypical EPEC in relation to EAEC in community-acquired diarrhoea in Brazil suggests a shift in the trend of DEC pathotypes circulation as previously EAEC predominated. This is the first report ofE. albertiiisolation from active surveillance. These results highlight the need of continuing DEC andE. albertiisurveillance, as a mean to detect changes in the pattern of pathotypes and serotypes circulation and provide useful information for intervention and control strategies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Judd ◽  
Karen Wong

Objective: The “ledsmanageR”, a data management platform built in R, aims to improve the timeliness and accuracy of national foodborne surveillance data submitted to the Laboratory-based Enteric Disease Surveillance (LEDS) system by automating the data processing, validating, and reporting workflow.Introduction: The National Surveillance Team in the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects electronic data from all state and regional public health laboratories on human infections caused by Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and Shigella in LEDS. These data inform annual estimates of the burden of illness, assessments of patterns in bacterial subtypes, and can be used to describe trends in incidence. Robust digital infrastructure is required to process, validate, and summarize data on approximately 60,000 infections annually while optimizing use of financial and personnel resources.Methods: We leveraged the robust and extensible programming facilities of the R programming language and the active community of R users to develop a data integration, processing, and reporting pipeline for LEDS via an internal software package we named “ledsmanageR”. We designed all data retrieval, cleaning, and provisioning algorithms using tools from RStudio software packages1–3 and tracked changes to source code and data using CDC’s internal Gitlab server. We automated data validation requests to reporting partners by generating customizable emails directly from the R console4. We streamlined the data reconciliation process using OpenRefine5, a point-and-click tool for cleaning big data. We automated generation of annual reports, a process that was previously manual, using parameterized RMarkdown documents. Staff epidemiologists performed design and implementation internally, requiring no external consulting.Results: Developing our free and open-source software platform for national foodborne surveillance data management has saved the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch thousands of dollars because we no longer depend on proprietary software requiring annual licensing fees. This transition occurred without any disruption in surveillance operations. Partial automation of email-based data validation and annual report generation processes reduced employee time requirement from one full-time position to one part-time position. The modular nature of ledsmanageR permitted LEDS to collect an expanded set of data elements with no changes to the core data processing and reporting workflow.Conclusions: We developed and implemented a flexible tool that helps maintain the integrity of surveillance data and reduces the need for manual data cleaning, which can be laborious and error-prone. The user-friendly design features of ledsmanageR demonstrate that data management can be optimized using programming skills that are increasingly common among epidemiologists. Our work on improving the accuracy and efficiency of enteric disease surveillance has served as a proof of concept for plans to streamline data processing for other surveillance systems.


1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Genthe ◽  
N. Strauss ◽  
J. Seager ◽  
C. Vundule ◽  
F. Maforah ◽  
...  

Efforts to provide water to developing communities in South Africa have resulted in various types of water supplies being used. This study examined the relationship between the type of water supply and the quality of water used. Source (communal taps, private outdoor and indoor taps) and point-of-use water samples were examined for heterotrophic plate counts (HPC), total and faecal coliforms, E. coli, and coliphages. Ten percent of samples were also analysed for enteric viruses, Giardia and Cryptosporidium. Approximately 320 households were included in a case-control study. In addition, a cross-sectional study was conducted. Both studies examined the relationship between different types of water facilities and diarrhoea among pre-school children. The source water was of good microbial quality, but water quality was found to have deteriorated significantly after handling and storage in both case and control households, exceeding drinking water quality guideline values by 1-6 orders of magnitude. Coliphage counts were low for all water samples tested. Enteric viruses and Cryptosporidium oocysts were not detected. Giardia cysts were detected on one occasion in case and control in-house samples. Comparisons of whether in-house water, after handling and storage, complied with water quality guideline values demonstrated households using communal taps to have significantly poorer quality than households using private outdoor or indoor taps for HPC and E. coli (χ2 = 14.9, P = 0.001; χ2 = 6.6, P = 0.04 respectively). A similar trend (although not statistically significant) was observed for the other microbial indicators. The cross-sectional study demonstrated an apparent decrease in health risk associated with private outdoor taps in comparison to communal taps. This study suggests that a private outdoor tap is the minimum level of water supply in order to ensure the supply of safe water to developing communities.


1996 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 616-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Caruso ◽  
Mariano Antonelli ◽  
Luigi Cervoni ◽  
Maurizio Salvati

Aims and Background Intramedullary teratoma is an extremely exceptional tumor (5 cases), although a careful review of international literature has shown it to be more frequent (32 cases) than believed. Methods The authors present a personal case with some unusual aspects. Results Our case is unusual not only because it was diagnosed by MRI (only one case has been reported in the literature) but also because surgical removal of the tumor was apparently total (only 4 other cases have been described), with a long follow-up period (4.5 years) and excellent results, in clinical and neuroradiologic terms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chibuzor M. Nsofor ◽  
Mirabeau Y. Tattfeng ◽  
Chijioke A. Nsofor

Abstract Background This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of qnr genes among fluoroquinolone-resistant Escherichia coli (FREC) isolates from Nigeria. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed by disc diffusion technique. Polymerase chain reaction was used to identify Escherichia coli (E. coli) and for the detection of qnr genes. Results A total of 206 non-duplicate E. coli were isolated from 300 clinical specimens analyzed. In all, 30 (14.6%) of these isolates were FREC; the resistance to fluoroquinolones among these 30 FREC showed 80% (24), 86.7% (26), 86.7% (26), 100% (30), 86.7% (26), 93.3% (28) and 86.7% (26) were resistant to pefloxacin, ciprofloxacin, sparfloxacin, levofloxacin, nalidixic acid, ofloxacin and moxifloxacin, respectively. The distribution of FREC among the various sample sources analyzed showed that 14%, 10%, 13.3%, 16.7% and 20% of the isolates came from urine, stool, high vaginal swab, endo cervical swab and wound swab specimens, respectively. More FREC were isolated from female samples 73.3% (22) compared to male samples 26.7% (8) and were more prevalent among the age group 26–35 years (40%). Twenty eight out of the 30 (93.3%) FREC isolates possessed at least one fluoroquinolone resistance gene in the form of qnrA 10 (33.3%) and qnrB 18 (60%), respectively; qnrS was not detected among the FREC isolates analyzed and 13.5% of the isolates possessed both the qnrA and qnrB genes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these isolates were genetically diverse. Conclusions These findings suggest a possible resistance to fluoroquinolone is of high interest for better management of patients and control of antimicrobial resistance in Nigeria.


2009 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Bach ◽  
R P Johnson ◽  
K. Stanford ◽  
T A McAllister

Bacteriophage biocontrol has potential as a means of mitigating the prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in ruminants. The efficacy of oral administration of bacteriophages for reducing fecal shedding of E. coli O157:H7 by sheep was evaluated using 20 Canadian Arcott rams (50.0 ± 3.0) housed in four rooms (n = 5) in a contained facility. The rams had ad libitum access to drinking water and a pelleted barley-based total mixed ration, delivered once daily. Experimental treatments consisted of administration of E. coli O157:H7 (O157), E. coli O157:H7+bacteriophages (O157+phage), bacteriophages (phage), and control (CON). Oral inoculation of the rams with 109 CFU of a mixture of four nalidixic acid-resistant strains of E. coli O157:H7 was performed on day 0. A mixture of 1010 PFU of bacteriophages P5, P8 and P11 was administered on days -2, -1, 0, 6 and 7. Fecal samples collected on 14 occasions over 21 d were analyzed for E. coli O157:H7, total E. coli, total coliforms and bacteriophages. Sheep in treatment O157+phage shed fewer (P < 0.05) E. coli O157:H7 than did sheep in treatment O157. Populations of total coliforms and total E. coli were similar (P < 0.05) among treatments, implying that bacteriophage lysis of non-target E. coli and coliform bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract did not occur. Bacteriophage numbers declined rapidly over 21 d, which likely reduced the chance of collision between bacteria and bacteriophage. Oral administration of bacteriophages reduced shedding of E. coli O157:H7 by sheep, but a delivery system that would protect bacteriophages during passage through the intestine may increase the effectiveness of this strategy as well as allow phage to be administered in the feed.Key words: Escherichia coli O157:H7, bacteriophage, sheep, environment, coliforms


2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig W. Hedberg ◽  
Jesse F. Greenblatt ◽  
Bela T. Matyas ◽  
Jennifer Lemmings ◽  
Donald J. Sharp ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (77) ◽  
pp. 208-213
Author(s):  
D. Masiuk ◽  
A. Sosnitskiy ◽  
A. Kokarev ◽  
S. Koliada

There were infected neonatal piglets in the first days of their lives PED virus suspension derived from pigs previously PED patients. Diagnosis for PED in piglets donor virus PED was inserted complex method for clinical and epizootic performance and confirmed the identification PEDV by PCR-RT using the test system «EZ-RED/TGE/PDCoV MPX 1.0 Real time RT-PCR» company Tetracore (USA) Thermocyclers CFX 96 Real-Time System company BIO RAD (USA). Homogenate small intestine of pigs PEDV donor, prepared in a blender for PCR in a thick band of 18 animal carcasses, frozen at -18 °C without cryopreservation and kept 359 days. Before infecting pigs and strip defrost by RT-PCR identified the concentration of the virus genome equivalents (GE) without establishing viable virions quantitative pathogen. For Sample 20 selected analog neonatal piglets, divided them into 3 experimental groups (group 1 – 5 piglets, group 2 – 5 piglets and group 3 – 7 piglets) and one control (3 piglets). Research pigs infected per os virus-containing suspension with a concentration PEDV 1.03×106 GE/cm3. The dose for infection first group was 6 cm3 (6.18×106 GE/cm3), for the second – 5 cm3 (5,15 × 106 GE/cm3), for the third – 4 cm3 (4.12 GE×106/cm3) homogenate. The fourth group – control (not infected). All the pigs were in identical conditions that fully meet the physiological needs of the body. Of the 17 infected pigs only 2 was infected PEDV. PED was confirmed by laboratory methods. In bacteriological examination of internal organs of pigs that came out of a research experiment and control group were diagnosed colibacteriosis. In the control group was isolated from heart and intestinal non-pathogenic for white mice E. coli. From pigs 1 and 2 research groups has been allocated to white mice nonpathogenic E. coli, is set colibacteriosis; 2 experimental group found in one pig hemolytic E. coli; 3 experimental group from the internal organs of pigs in conjunction with non-pathogenic for mice intestinal former cane isolated Klesiella spp., is diagnosed with mixed infection (E. coli, Klesiella spp.). From the intestine of experimental and control pigs do not identified beneficial microflora – aerococcus, lactobacteria, bifidobacteria and cultured putrefactive anaerobic spore facultative and non spore microflora.


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