Carriage of serotype A in children: Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) study.

Background: serotype a (Hia) has recently emerged as an important cause of invasive disease, mainly affecting young Indigenous children. Carriage of is a pre-requisite for invasive disease and reservoir for transmission. To better understand the epidemiology of invasive Hia disease, we initiated a multicentre study of nasopharyngeal carriage among Canadian children.

Characteristics of polymerase chain reaction-positive syphilis cases in Manitoba, Canada, 2017 to 2020: Demographic analysis, specimen types, and gene targets.

Background: A resurgence of syphilis infections has been described in a number of countries including Canada in the last decade.

Methods: This study identified polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive syphilis cases based on detection of genes (, , and ) in 3,350 clinical specimens obtained from patients in the province of Manitoba, Canada between 2017 and 2020. Patient demographics were obtained from specimen requisition forms.

Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network guidelines for the use of point-of-care tests for in Canada.

Over the past few years, the increase in infectious syphilis outbreaks in major urban centres and remote or rural locations in Canada, often affecting hard-to-reach patient populations, has renewed an interest and urgency in studying the use of point-of-care tests (POCTs) that can provide test results at the time and place of primary health care delivery, obviating the repeat visit necessary with traditional syphilis serology or molecular diagnostic tests. In 2015, the Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network released its first laboratory guideline for the use of POCTs in the diagnosis of syphilis in Canada. Although Canada has no licensed POCT, two POCTs (Syphilis Health Check and the DPP® HIV Syphilis System) have received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval under premarket approval applications.

Laboratory evaluation of two point-of-care test kits for the identification of infectious syphilis.

Background: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can have atypical clinical presentations. Conventional laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis are not rapid enough to affect clinical decision on treatment and contact tracing. Rapid point-of-care tests (POCT) can be useful for control of infectious diseases; however, no POCT for syphilis detection is currently available in Canada.

Paediatric meningococcaemia in northwestern Ontario, Canada: a case for publicly funded meningococcal B vaccination.

Introduction: serogroup B is an important infectious agent in developed countries, including Canada. Infants are particularly susceptible to infection with serogroup B because of immature immune systems, pathogen virulence factors and changing serogroup dynamics in the post-vaccination era. Currently, the Ontario provincial government does not include serogroup B in its routine publicly funded meningococcal vaccination program.

A non-healing syphilid: Another face of the great imitator.

The global re-emergence of syphilis is an exigent public health issue requiring both clinicians and public health practitioners to become familiar with the myriad manifestations of this great imitator. This report describes a case of an originally undiagnosed chronic oral syphilitic chancre, subsequently confirmed by both PCR and immunohistochemistry.

Ciprofloxacin-resistant Neisseria meningitidis in Canada: likely imported strains.

The prevalence of ciprofloxacin-resistant Neisseria meningitidis in Canada was studied by testing 346 isolates received at the National Microbiology Laboratory during the calendar years 2013 to 2015. Of the 277 individual invasive and 69 noninvasive isolates tested, only 2 serogroup C (MenC) isolates were found to be resistant to ciprofloxacin. Both MenC were typed as sequence type (ST)-4821, a unique clone found mainly in China, thus suggesting both isolates might be from travel-related or imported cases.

Antigenic and genetic characterization of Bordetella pertussis recovered from Quebec, Canada, 2002-2014: detection of a genetic shift.

Despite vaccination, cyclical peaks of Bordetella pertussis incidence rates are still observed in Canada and other developed countries, making pertussis one of the most prevalent vaccine preventable bacterial diseases. In the postacellular vaccine era, evolution of bacterial strains has resulted in strains with altered vaccine antigens. Previous Canadian studies have focused on isolates mainly from the provinces of Ontario and Alberta, with only small numbers of isolates from other provinces.

Laboratory characterization of invasive Haemophilus influenzae isolates from Nunavut, Canada, 2000-2012.

Background: With invasive Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib) disease controlled by vaccination with conjugate Hib vaccines, there is concern that invasive disease due to non-serotype b strains may emerge.

Objective: This study characterized invasive H. influenzae (Hi) isolates from Nunavut, Canada, in the post-Hib vaccine era.

Characterization of invasive Neisseria meningitidis from Atlantic Canada, 2009 to 2013: With special reference to the nonpolysaccharide vaccine targets (PorA, factor H binding protein, Neisseria heparin-binding antigen and Neisseria adhesin A).

Background: Serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis (MenB) has always been a major cause of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in Canada. With the successful implementation of a meningitis C conjugate vaccine, the majority of IMD in Canada is now caused by MenB.

Objective: To investigate IMD case isolates in Atlantic Canada from 2009 to 2013.

Genomic resolution of an aggressive, widespread, diverse and expanding meningococcal serogroup B, C and W lineage.

Objectives: Neisseria meningitidis is a leading cause of meningitis and septicaemia. The hyperinvasive ST-11 clonal complex (cc11) caused serogroup C (MenC) outbreaks in the US military in the 1960s and UK universities in the 1990s, a global Hajj-associated serogroup W (MenW) outbreak in 2000-2001, and subsequent MenW epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa. More recently, endemic MenW disease has expanded in South Africa, South America and the UK, and MenC cases have been reported among European and North American men who have sex with men (MSM).

Characterization of invasive Neisseria meningitidis strains from Québec, Canada, during a period of increased serogroup B disease, 2009-2013: phenotyping and genotyping with special emphasis on the non-carbohydrate protein vaccine targets.

Background: The epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in Québec, Canada, has been dominated in the past decade by a clone of serogroup B (MenB) Neisseria meningitidis defined by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) as sequence type (ST)-269. With the licensure of a new MenB vaccine Bexsero (4CMenB) in Canada, this study characterized invasive N. meningitidis recovered in Québec from 2009 to 2013, with an objective to examine the diversity of the 4CMenB vaccine antigens.

Tonsillar Syphilis: an Unusual Site of Infection Detected by Treponema pallidum PCR.

With the reemergence of syphilis, it is important that both clinical and public health practitioners recognize the various clinical manifestations of this disease (formerly known as "the great imitator") and become familiar with the newer diagnostic tests. Here we report the first case of tonsillar syphilis diagnosed by PCR.

Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network laboratory guidelines for the use of serological tests (excluding point-of-care tests) for the diagnosis of syphilis in Canada.

Syphilis, caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum, is an infection recognized since antiquity. It was first reported at the end of the 15th century in Europe.

Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network laboratory guidelines for the use of direct tests to detect syphilis in Canada.

Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum and/or its nucleic acid can be detected by various methods such as microscopy, rabbit infectivity test or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. The rabbit infectivity test for T.

Genetic and antigenic characterization of Canadian invasive Neisseria meningitidis serogroup C (MenC) case isolates in the post-MenC conjugate vaccine era, 2009-2013.

We previously reported a shift in the electrophoretic type (ET) of invasive MenC in Canada from predominantly ET-15 to ET-37 in the post-MenC conjugate vaccine period. This study sought to confirm this trend by examining all culture-confirmed invasive MenC case isolates in Canada in the period from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2013. Of the 50 MenC isolates, 18 belonged to ET-15, 28 belonged to ET-37 (but not ET-15), and four belonged to other clonal types.

Pertactin-negative Bordetella pertussis strains in Canada: characterization of a dozen isolates based on a survey of 224 samples collected in different parts of the country over the last 20 years.

Objective: To detect and characterize pertactin-negative Bordetella pertussis in Canada, especially for isolates collected in recent years.

Methods: A total of 224 isolates from the years 1994-2013 were screened by Western immuno-blot for expression of pertactin. Pertactin-negative isolates were characterized by serotyping, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and genotyping of their pertactin, fimbriae 3, pertussis toxin subunit 1, and pertussis toxin gene promoter region, as well as the complete sequence of the pertactin gene.

Global population structure and evolution of Bordetella pertussis and their relationship with vaccination.

Bordetella pertussis causes pertussis, a respiratory disease that is most severe for infants. Vaccination was introduced in the 1950s, and in recent years, a resurgence of disease was observed worldwide, with significant mortality in infants. Possible causes for this include the switch from whole-cell vaccines (WCVs) to less effective acellular vaccines (ACVs), waning immunity, and pathogen adaptation.