Background: The continued emergence of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, with ever increasing antimicrobial resistance, necessitates the use of vaccines in endemic countries. A typhoid fever outbreak in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2018 from a multidrug resistant S Typhi with additional resistance to ciprofloxacin was the catalyst for the introduction of a typhoid conjugate vaccine programme. We aimed to investigate the emergence and evolution of antimicrobial resistance of endemic S Typhi in Zimbabwe and to determine the population structure, gene flux, and sequence polymorphisms of strains isolated before a typhoid conjugate vaccine programme to provide a baseline for future evaluation of the effect of the vaccination programme.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study was conducted to explore the epidemiology and microbiological pattern of the cholera outbreaks that occurred in Zimbabwe from 2018 to 2019.
Study Setting And Design: This descriptive study used secondary data of 9971 out of 10 730 suspected cases from the Zimbabwean National Diseases Surveillance system and microbiology data of 241 out of 371 patients from the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory in Harare, for the period 5 September 2018 and 3 January 2019. Descriptive analysis was performed to describe the characteristics of the outbreak in terms of person, place and time.
Introduction: Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing have become widespread among food producing animals. These strains serve as a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and act as a possible source of infection to humans as transmission can occur by direct or indirect contact.
Methods: This study investigated the faecal carriage of ESBL producing and colistin resistant in poultry over a 2-year period (2017-2019) from Zimbabwe.
Background: Zimbabwe suffers from regular outbreaks of typhoid fever (TF), worse since 2017. Most cases were in Harare and a vaccination campaign with Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV) was conducted in March 2019. The vaccine effectiveness (VE) was assessed against culture-confirmed S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis
November 2021
This study was designed to characterize extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing extra-intestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (E.coli) (ExPEC) associated with urinary tract infections in nine different geographic regions of Zimbabwe over a 2-year period (2017-2019). A total of 48 ESBL-positive isolates from urine specimen were selected for whole-genome sequencing from 1246 Escherichia coli isolates biobanked at the National Microbiology Reference laboratory using phenotypic susceptibility testing results from the National Escherichia coli Surveillance Programme to provide representation of different geographical regions and year of isolation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLancet Glob Health
December 2021
Background: Typhoid fever, caused by S. enterica ser. Typhi, continues to be a substantial health burden in developing countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Typhoid fever remains a major public health problem in Zimbabwe with recurrent outbreaks reported since 2009. To provide guidance on appropriate treatment choice in order to minimise the morbidity and mortality of typhoid fever and prevent large scale outbreaks, we investigated the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, prevalence of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi (S. Typhi) H58 haplotype and molecular subtypes of S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Molecular epidemiological investigations of the highly clonal Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) are important in outbreak detection and in tracking disease transmission. In this study, we developed and evaluated a multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeats (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) assay for characterization of S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Gonorrhoea and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in are major public health concerns worldwide. Enhanced AMR surveillance for gonococci is essential globally. In Zimbabwe, very limited gonococcal AMR data were reported.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, the causative agent of typhoid, is endemic in most parts of the world especially in Africa. Reliable and rapid diagnosis of the bacterium is therefore critical for confirmation of all suspected typhoid cases. In many parts of Zimbabwe, laboratory capacity to isolate the microorganism by culture method as a way of diagnosis has limitations.
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