Streptococcal pharyngitis, rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease: Eight-year prospective surveillance in Rupnagar district of Punjab, India.

Background: Rheumatic fever (RF)/rheumatic heart disease (RHD) continue to be a neglected public health priority. We carried out a registry-based control project, prospective surveillance and sample surveys to estimate the burden of disease.

Methods: We trained healthcare providers and established a surveillance system for the 1.

Immune response against M protein-conserved region peptides from prevalent group A Streptococcus in a North Indian population.

Background: Group A streptococci (GAS) cause infections with a high prevalence in most developing countries. A GAS vaccine under trial that is based on the amino-terminus of the M protein provides type-specific immunity, and hence seems ineffective in India because of heterogeneous emm types. However, the conserved C-terminal region of the M protein protects against multiple serotypes.

Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of β-haemolytic group A, C and G streptococci isolated from North India.

The objective of this study was to determine the antibiotic resistance amongst beta-haemolytic streptococci (BHS) from North India. A total of 155 BHS isolates, comprising group A streptococci (GAS) (102), group C streptococci (GCS) (25) and group G streptococci (GGS) (28), collected from patients with pharyngitis, rheumatic fever, skin disease and invasive disease were analysed for their antimicrobial susceptibility to 20 antibiotics using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method. The MICs of penicillin, tetracycline, clarithromycin, azithromycin and erythromycin were also determined using the HiComb test, following the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines.

Clinical and microbiologic characteristics of invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infections in north and south India.

The lack of epidemiologic data on invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infections in many developing countries is concerning, as S. pyogenes infections are commonly endemic in these areas. Here we present the results of the first prospective surveillance study of invasive Streptococcus pyogenes infections in India.