Publications by authors named "David Aanensen"

Article Synopsis
  • The study highlights the serious threat of antibacterial resistance (ABR) in low-resource areas like East Africa, specifically focusing on multi-drug resistant urinary tract infections (MDR UTIs).
  • Researchers examined a variety of factors, including behavioral, environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic influences, that contribute to the risk of developing MDR UTIs among outpatients in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
  • Findings suggest that individuals at higher risk tend to have multiple social and environmental disadvantages, indicating that effective interventions should consider these intersecting factors rather than just focusing on antibiotic use alone.
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is a globally emerged fungal pathogen causing nosocomial invasive infections. Here, we use cutting-edge genomic approaches to elucidate the temporal and geographic epidemiology of drug-resistant within the UK. We analysed a representative sample of over 200 isolates from multiple UK hospitals to assess the number and timings of introductions and infer subsequent patterns of inter- and intra-hospital transmission of azole drug-resistant isolates.

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Objective: Indonesia commenced the nationwide introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in 2022. Pre-vaccine Streptococcus pneumoniae data from across the country could be critical to enable vaccine impact evaluation in the future. This study evaluates colonization prevalence, factors associated with colonization, serotype distribution, and the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of S.

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poses a significant healthcare challenge due to its multidrug resistance and diverse serotype landscape. This study aimed to explore the serotype diversity of 1072 . and its association with geographical distribution, disease severity and antimicrobial/virulence patterns in India.

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Background: Regular quality-assured whole-genome sequencing linked to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and patient metadata is imperative to elucidate the shifting gonorrhoea epidemiology, both nationally and internationally. We aimed to examine the gonococcal population in the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2020, elucidate emerging and disappearing gonococcal lineages associated with AMR and patient metadata, compare with 2013 and 2018 whole-genome sequencing data, and explain changes in gonococcal AMR and gonorrhoea epidemiology.

Methods: In this retrospective genomic surveillance study, we analysed consecutive gonococcal isolates that were collected in EEA countries through the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP) in 2020, and made comparisons with Euro-GASP data from 2013 and 2018.

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Antibacterial resistance (ABR) is a major public health threat. An important accelerating factor is treatment-seeking behaviour, including inappropriate antibiotic (AB) use. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) this includes taking ABs with and without prescription sourced from various providers, including health facilities and community drug sellers.

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Background: In 2015, the UK government established the Fleming Fund with the aim to address critical gaps in surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa. Among a large portfolio of grants, the Capturing Data on Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns and Trends in Use in Regions of Asia (CAPTURA) project was awarded with the specific objective of expanding the volume of historical data on AMR, consumption (AMC), and use (AMU) in the human healthcare sector across 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia.

Methods: Starting in early 2019, the CAPTURA consortium began working with local governments and >100 relevant data-holding facilities across the region to identify, assess for quality, prioritize, and subsequently retrieve data on AMR, AMC, and AMU.

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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a multifaceted global health problem disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The Capturing data on Antimicrobial resistance Patterns and Trends in Use in Regions of Asia (CAPTURA) project was tasked to expand the volume of AMR and antimicrobial use data in Asia. The CAPTURA project used 2 data-collection streams: facility data and project metadata.

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Objectives: This study aimed to provide evidence of the domestic benefits of introducing an integrative genomic analysis from the One Health approach in the national surveillance of between 1997-2017 in Colombia.

Methods: Data on from clinical laboratory-based surveillance between 1997-2017 and from a national cross-sectional study at chicken retail stores in Colombia were compared using a phenotypic, molecular, and genomic approaches. Additional analysis by serovar using single nucleotide polymorphism was developed to increase the resolution of the relatedness between the interfaces.

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Nearly a century after the beginning of the antibiotic era, which has been associated with unparalleled improvements in human health and reductions in mortality associated with infection, the dwindling pipeline for new antibiotic classes coupled with the inevitable spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major global challenge. Historically, surveillance of bacteria with AMR typically relied on phenotypic analysis of isolates taken from infected individuals, which provides only a low-resolution view of the epidemiology behind an individual infection or wider outbreak. Recent years have seen increasing adoption of powerful new genomic technologies with the potential to revolutionise AMR surveillance by providing a high-resolution picture of the AMR profile of the bacteria causing infections and providing real-time actionable information for treating and preventing infection.

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Historically, epidemiological investigation and surveillance for bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has relied on low-resolution isolate-based phenotypic analyses undertaken at local and national reference laboratories. Genomic sequencing has the potential to provide a far more high-resolution picture of AMR evolution and transmission, and is already beginning to revolutionise how public health surveillance networks monitor and tackle bacterial AMR. However, the routine integration of genomics in surveillance pipelines still has considerable barriers to overcome.

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is a major pathogen in India causing community and nosocomial infections, but little is known about its molecular epidemiology and mechanisms of resistance in hospital settings. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to characterize 478 . clinical isolates (393 methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and 85 methicilin-sensitive (MSSA) collected from 17 sentinel sites across India between 2014 and 2019.

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Background: The Global Typhoid Genomics Consortium was established to bring together the typhoid research community to aggregate and analyse serovar Typhi (Typhi) genomic data to inform public health action. This analysis, which marks 22 years since the publication of the first Typhi genome, represents the largest Typhi genome sequence collection to date (n=13,000).

Methods: This is a meta-analysis of global genotype and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) determinants extracted from previously sequenced genome data and analysed using consistent methods implemented in open analysis platforms GenoTyphi and Pathogenwatch.

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Background: A key factor driving the development and maintenance of antibacterial resistance (ABR) is individuals' use of antibiotics (ABs) to treat illness. To better understand motivations and context for antibiotic use we use the concept of a patient treatment-seeking pathway: a treatment journey encompassing where patients go when they are unwell, what motivates their choices, and how they obtain antibiotics. This paper investigates patterns and determinants of patient treatment-seeking pathways, and how they intersect with AB use in East Africa, a region where ABR-attributable deaths are exceptionally high.

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Article Synopsis
  • The global response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic underscored the importance of sharing genomic data with standardized information for tracking new variants.
  • The text advocates for the importance of sharing genomic data specifically for Typhi (the bacteria that causes typhoid fever) and highlights available platforms that aid in this effort.
  • Key initiatives mentioned include the Africa CDC's Pathogen Genomics Initiative, SEQAFRICA, Typhi Pathogenwatch, TyphiNET, and the Global Typhoid Genomics Consortium, which support the analysis and visualization of Typhi genomic data in Africa and beyond.
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Rising rates of multidrug-resistant infections necessitate a comprehensive understanding of the major strains and plasmids driving spread of resistance elements. Here, we analysed 540 clinical, screen and environmental isolates recovered from across Wales between 2007 and 2020 using combined short- and long-read sequencing approaches. We identified resistant clones that have spread within and between hospitals including the high-risk strain sequence type (ST)307, which acquired the carbapenemase gene on a pOXA-48-like plasmid.

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remains one of the leading causes of infections worldwide and a common cause of bacteraemia. However, studies documenting the epidemiology of in South America using genomics are scarce. We hereby report on the largest genomic epidemiology study to date of both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible (MSSA) in South America, conducted by the StaphNET-SA network.

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Article Synopsis
  • Acinetobacter baumannii is causing tough infections mainly in immunocompromised patients, and there is limited knowledge about its carbapenem resistance in Nigeria.
  • This study analyzed genetic diversity and resistance mechanisms of A. baumannii strains from southwestern Nigeria by sequencing their genomes, revealing that over half of the isolates were resistant to many antibiotics.
  • The findings indicate a significant presence of novel strains and emphasize the need for better surveillance and understanding of these pathogens in Nigeria, especially as they spread resistance mechanisms through transposons.
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Genomic analyses are widely applied to epidemiological, population genetic and experimental studies of pathogenic fungi. A wide range of methods are employed to carry out these analyses, typically without including controls that gauge the accuracy of variant prediction. The importance of tracking outbreaks at a global scale has raised the urgency of establishing high-accuracy pipelines that generate consistent results between research groups.

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The scale of data produced during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been unprecedented, with more than 13 million sequences shared publicly at the time of writing. This wealth of sequence data provides important context for interpreting local outbreaks. However, placing sequences of interest into national and international context is difficult given the size of the global dataset.

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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) mechanisms, especially those conferring resistance to critically important antibiotics, are a great concern for public health. 16S rRNA methyltransferases (16S-RMTases) abolish the effectiveness of most clinically used aminoglycosides, but some of them are considered sporadic, such as RmtE. The main goals of this work were the genomic analysis of bacteria producing 16S-RMTases from a 'One Health' perspective in Venezuela, and the study of the epidemiological and evolutionary scenario of RmtE variants and their related mobile genetic elements (MGEs) worldwide.

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Antibacterial resistance (ABR) is a major public health threat. An important accelerating factor is treatment-seeking behaviours, including inappropriate antibiotic (AB) use. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) this includes taking ABs with and without prescription sourced from various providers, including health facilities and community drug sellers.

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Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing has rich potential for genomic epidemiology and public health investigations of bacterial pathogens, particularly in low-resource settings and at the point of care, due to its portability and affordability. However, low base-call accuracy has limited the reliability of ONT data for critical tasks such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and virulence gene detection and typing, serotype prediction, and cluster identification. Thus, Illumina sequencing remains the standard for genomic surveillance despite higher capital and running costs.

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