Detection of Epidemic Scarlet Fever Group A Streptococcus in Australia

Mark J Walker; Stephan Brouwer; Brian M Forde; Kate A Worthing; Liam McIntyre; Lana Sundac; Sam Maloney; Leah W Roberts; Timothy C Barnett; Johanna Richter; Amanda J Cork; Adam D Irwin; Yuanhai You; Jianzhong Zhang; Gordon Dougan; Kwok Y Yuen; Victor Nizet; Scott A Beatson; Keith Grimwood; Mark R Davies

doi:10.1093/cid/ciz099

Detection of Epidemic Scarlet Fever Group A Streptococcus in Australia

Clin Infect Dis. 2019 Sep 13;69(7):1232-1234. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciz099.

Authors

Mark J Walker¹, Stephan Brouwer¹, Brian M Forde¹, Kate A Worthing², Liam McIntyre², Lana Sundac³, Sam Maloney³, Leah W Roberts¹, Timothy C Barnett¹, Johanna Richter¹, Amanda J Cork¹, Adam D Irwin^{4

5}, Yuanhai You⁶, Jianzhong Zhang⁶, Gordon Dougan⁷, Kwok Y Yuen^{8

9

10}, Victor Nizet¹¹, Scott A Beatson¹, Keith Grimwood^{12

13}, Mark R Davies²

Affiliations

¹ Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Victoria, Australia.
³ Pathology Queensland, Gold Coast Laboratory, Brisbane, Australia.
⁴ University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Brisbane, Australia.
⁵ Queensland Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation, Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing.
⁷ Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
⁸ Department of Microbiology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
⁹ Research Centre of Infection and Immunology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
¹¹ Division of Host-Microbe Systems and Therapeutics, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.
¹² Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast.
¹³ Departments of Infectious Diseases and Pediatrics, Gold Coast Health, Queensland, Australia.

PMID: 30721938
DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciz099

Abstract

Sentinel hospital surveillance was instituted in Australia to detect the presence of pandemic group A Streptococcus strains causing scarlet fever. Genomic and phylogenetic analyses indicated the presence of an Australian GAS emm12 scarlet fever isolate related to United Kingdom outbreak strains. National surveillance to monitor this pandemic is recommended.

Keywords: Steptococcus pyogenes; outbreak; scarlet fever; superantigen.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Australia / epidemiology
Computational Biology / methods
Disease Outbreaks
Genome, Bacterial
Genomics / methods
Humans
Phylogeny
Population Surveillance
Scarlet Fever / diagnosis
Scarlet Fever / epidemiology*
Scarlet Fever / microbiology*
Streptococcus pyogenes / classification*
Streptococcus pyogenes / genetics*

Grants and funding

WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom