Publications by authors named "Margreet J Te Wierik"

Article Synopsis
  • After COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in 2022, the incidence of invasive group A streptococcal (iGAS) infections increased among children and adults, linked to a rise in other viral infections like influenza and varicella.
  • A study in the Netherlands aimed to quantify how much skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) and pneumonia/sepsis cases in children and adults were connected to these viral infections.
  • Findings showed that from 2010-2023, varicella was responsible for a significant portion of GAS SSTI cases, while influenza A was the main viral contributor to pneumonia/sepsis, indicating the need for public health interventions like vaccinations to mitigate iGAS infection rates.
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BackgroundIn 2022 and 2023, a global outbreak of mpox affected mostly gay, bisexual and other men having sex with men (GBMSM). Outbreak control in the Netherlands included isolation, quarantine, post-exposure prophylaxis vaccination and primary preventive vaccination (PPV).AimWe describe the course of the outbreak, the vaccination programme, vaccine effectiveness (VE) of full vaccination against symptomatic disease, and trends in behaviour to generate hypotheses about factors that influenced the outbreak's decline.

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In early May 2022, a global outbreak of mpox started among persons without travel history to regions known to be enzootic for monkeypox virus (MPXV). On 8 August 2022, the Netherlands reported its 1,000th mpox case, representing a cumulative incidence of 55 per million population, one of the highest cumulative incidences worldwide. We describe characteristics of the first 1,000 mpox cases in the Netherlands, reported between 20 May and 8 August 2022, within the context of the public health response.

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On 21 November 2022, a wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) was isolated from an environmental surveillance sample of poliovirus essential facilities in the Netherlands. All 51 employees with access to this strain were screened for ongoing or recent poliovirus infection. One employee shedding WPV3 was identified on 8 December and placed in isolation; monitoring and contact tracing were initiated.

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Article Synopsis
  • Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a rare, polio-like condition mainly affecting children and linked to non-polio-enteroviruses like EV-D68 and EV-A71; this study specifically focused on AFM incidence in the Netherlands from 2014 to 2019.
  • Out of 143 patients reviewed, only eight had definite AFM, leading to a low incidence rate of 0.06 cases per 100,000 children per year, with EV-D68 detected in five respiratory samples but no EV-A71 found.
  • The findings indicate that while AFM is rare, its occurrence does seem to align with outbreaks of EV-D68, highlighting the need for better awareness and monitoring among healthcare
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We observed an increase in notifications of puerperal group A (GAS) infections in July and August 2018 throughout the Netherlands without evidence for common sources. General practitioners reported a simultaneous increase in impetigo. We hypothesised that the outbreak of puerperal GAS infections resulted from increased exposure via impetigo in the community.

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In the Netherlands, 97 human leptospirosis cases were notified in 2014. This represents a 4.6-fold increase in autochthonous cases (n = 60) compared with the annual average between 2010 and 2013.

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Mandatory notification can be a useful tool to support infectious disease prevention and control. Guidelines are needed to help policymakers decide whether mandatory notification of an infectious disease is appropriate. We developed a decision aid, based on a range of criteria previously used in the Netherlands or in other regions to help decide whether to make a disease notifiable.

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Tetanus can occur after an injury and is caused by the exotoxin of Clostridium tetani. Characteristics of generalised tetanus include spasms in the back and other muscles, trismus, risus sardonicus and difficulty in breathing caused by laryngospasms. Vaccination through the National Vaccination Programme of the Netherlands has resulted in 94% of the population being protected against tetanus; certain groups, however, have a low rate of vaccination.

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