Pneumococcal Infections

Finland, Maxwell

doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-1140-0_23

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Each year in the U.S. S. pneumoniae causes about 150 000-570 000 cases of pneumonia, 2600-6200 cases of meningitis, and 16 000-55 000 cases of bacteremia. Prior to effective antibiotic treatment, the deaths per case for these three diseases were 0.2-0.3, 0.3, and 0.2, respectively (Heffron, 1939 ;Finland, 1982;Roberts, 1985). Using the midpoints for the preceding ranges, these figures yield about 90 000 deaths from pneumococcal pneumonia, 1320 deaths from meningitis and 7100 from bacteremia, for a total of 98 420 deaths due to S. pneumoniae each year.…”

Section: ( B ) Mortality Values For Different Pathogensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathogen survival in the external environment and the evolution of virulence

2004

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Recent studies have provided evolutionary explanations for much of the variation in mortality among human infectious diseases. One gap in this knowledge concerns respiratory tract pathogens transmitted from person to person by direct contact or through environmental contamination. The sit-and-wait hypothesis predicts that virulence should be positively correlated with durability in the external environment because high durability reduces the dependence of transmission on host mobility. Reviewing the epidemiological and medical literature, we confirm this prediction for respiratory tract pathogens of humans. Our results clearly distinguish a high-virulence high-survival group of variola (smallpox) virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cornynebacterium diphtheriae, Bordetella pertussis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and influenza virus (where all pathogens have a mean percent mortality > or = 0.01% and mean survival time >10 days) from a low-virulence low-survival group containing ten other pathogens. The correlation between virulence and durability explains three to four times of magnitude of difference in mean percent mortality and mean survival time, using both across-species and phylogenetically controlled analyses. Our findings bear on several areas of active research and public health policy: (1) many pathogens used in the biological control of insects are potential sit-and-wait pathogens as they combine three attributes that are advantageous for pest control: high virulence, long durability after application, and host specificity; (2) emerging pathogens such as the 'hospital superbug' methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and potential bioweapons pathogens such as smallpox virus and anthrax that are particularly dangerous can be discerned by quantifying their durability; (3) hospital settings and the AIDS pandemic may provide footholds for emerging sit-and-wait pathogens; and (4) studies on food-borne and insect pathogens point to future research considering the potential evolutionary trade-offs and genetic linkages between virulence and durability.

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Section: ( B ) Mortality Values For Different Pathogensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pathogen survival in the external environment and the evolution of virulence

2004

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“…Pneumococci account for most cases of community-acquired pneumonia (6,11,16,17), and the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis has been estimated to be close to 1.5 cases per 100,000 individuals per year, with an average mortality rate of 30 to 40%. The incidence of pneumococcal bacteremia is around 5 to 10 cases per 100,000 individuals per year, and in adults pneumococcal bacteremia treated with penicillin has a fatality rate of 15 to 24% (2,3,5,6). Because of the unacceptably high mortality rate, despite optimal antibiotic treatment and intensive care, prophylaxis must be offered to those at high risk of death if infected by pneumococci (2,3,15).…”

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confidence: 99%

Typing of pneumococci by using 12 pooled antisera

Sørensen

1993

J Clin Microbiol

256

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A new simplified chessboard system for typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae is described. It is intended for typing or grouping of 90 to 95% of the pneumococcal strains most commonly isolated from blood or cerebrospinal fluid and is based on 12 pooled diagnostic antisera, each reacting with 7 to 11 single types, together covering the 23 different vaccine-related types as well as 25 other cross-reacting types. Worldwide surveillance of the type distribution is important in order to ensure an optimal formulation of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines and, in the future, of polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines. The simplified typing system described in this paper makes it easier to carry out surveillance in other than specialized reference laboratories. Finally, it takes advantage of the fact that some types cause disease more often in children--as opposed to adults--than do others.

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Comparative study of five different DNA fingerprint techniques for molecular typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains

et al. 1995

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The aim of this study was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of five DNA fingerprint methods for epidemiological typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae. We investigated the usefulness of (i) ribotyping, (ii) BOX fingerprinting with the BOX repetitive sequence of S. pneumoniae as a DNA probe, (iii) PCR fingerprinting with a primer homologous to the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequence, (iv) pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of large DNA fragments, and (v) restriction fragment end labeling to detect restriction fragment length polymorphism of small DNA fragments. Twenty-eight S. pneumoniae strains isolated from the blood and/or cerebrospinal fluid of 21 patients were analyzed. Genetic clustering among the 28 strains was independent of the DNA fingerprint technique used. However, the discriminatory power and the similarity values differed significantly among the individual techniques. BOX fingerprinting, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and restriction fragment end labeling provided the highest degree of discriminatory power. Furthermore, the ease with which computerized fingerprint analysis could be conducted also varied significantly among the techniques. Ribotyping, BOX fingerprinting, and restriction fragment end labeling were very suitable techniques for accurate computerized data analysis. Because of their high discriminatory potential and ease of accurate analysis, we conclude that BOX fingerprinting and restriction fragment end labeling are the most suitable techniques to type pneumococcal strains.

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Pneumococcal Infections

Cited by 4 publications

References 67 publications

Pathogen survival in the external environment and the evolution of virulence

Pathogen survival in the external environment and the evolution of virulence

Typing of pneumococci by using 12 pooled antisera

Comparative study of five different DNA fingerprint techniques for molecular typing of Streptococcus pneumoniae strains

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