Publications by authors named "W Demczuk"
In the province of Alberta, Canada, invasive disease caused by serogroup 20 (serotypes 20A/20B) has been increasing in incidence. Here, we characterize provincial invasive serogroup 20 isolates collected from 1993 to 2019 alongside invasive and non-invasive serogroup 20 isolates from the Global Pneumococcal Sequencing (GPS) Project collected from 1998 to 2015. Trends in clinical metadata and geographic location were evaluated, and serogroup 20 isolate genomes were subjected to molecular sequence typing, virulence and antimicrobial resistance factor mining, phylogenetic analysis and pangenome calculation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStreptococcus pneumoniae serotype 19A is a highly diverse, often antimicrobial-resistant Gram-positive bacterium which can cause invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). In 2021, public health authorities in the Canadian province of Québec observed an increase of serotype 19A IPD in children <5 years. The purpose of this study was to determine the clonal composition of serotype 19A isolates collected from this age group in Québec, from 2016 to 2021.
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- The IRIS Consortium investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on invasive diseases caused by specific bacteria over a four-year period, comparing data from before and during the pandemic.
- Laboratories from 30 countries provided surveillance data, revealing a significant decrease in cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Neisseria meningitidis during the pandemic, while Streptococcus agalactiae cases remained unchanged.
- An estimated 36,289 cases of invasive bacterial disease were prevented due to COVID-19 containment measures during the first two years of the pandemic.
Article Synopsis
- The study tracks invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) isolates in Canada from 2011 to 2020 to evaluate how well different pneumococcal vaccines (PCV10, PCV13, PCV15, PCV20, and PPSV23) cover these strains under evolving antibiotic and vaccine pressures.
- Researchers analyzed over 14,000 isolates, finding that PCV20 provided the most extensive coverage, protecting against a higher percentage of serotypes compared to PCV13 and PCV15, particularly among various demographics and resistance profiles.
- The results suggest that higher-valency vaccines like PCV20 are more effective in addressing the diversity of IPD isolates, although there was no
Article Synopsis
- This study aims to analyze the genetic backgrounds and resistance traits of common pneumococcal serotypes in Canada over the past five years, focusing on their behavior after the introduction of the PCV13 vaccine.
- Researchers sequenced the genomes of a sample from the ten most prevalent serotypes and used this data to identify important characteristics, including virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes.
- The results revealed significant changes in the prevalence of certain serotypes, with some increasing in numbers and one, 19A, decreasing, highlighting the need for ongoing surveillance to track new bacterial lineages and AMR development in Canada.