Browsing by Author "Slotved, H.-C."
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Item Carriage and serotype distribution of Streptococcus agalactiae in third trimester pregnancy in southern Ghana(BioMed Central Ltd., 2017) Slotved, H.-C.; Dayie, N.T.K.D.; Banini, J.A.N.; Frimodt-Møller, N.Background: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococci, GBS) among healthy, pregnant women attending antenatal care at different study sites in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. Methods: Between 2010 and June 2013, recto-vaginal swab samples were collected from pregnant women attending antenatal care from two study sites in southern Ghana. The samples were collected within 35 and 37 weeks of the gestation period. These were inoculated into Todd-Hewitt broth followed by sub-culturing onto a sheep-blood agar plate. Identification was performed on a single subcultured colony. Gram staining was performed, and isolates were evaluated for beta-haemolytic reactions. Furthermore, the isolates were serotyped using the GBS latex serotyping kit. Results: The carriage rates were found to be 25.5% (95% CI: 19.6-32.1) to 28.0% (95% CI: 21.9-34.8) for the two collection sites. The most common serotypes were serotypes VII and IX. The data showed that women below 20 years of age or above 30 years of age have a significantly (p = 0.037) higher risk of carrying GBS compared to women from the age group of 20 to 30 years. Conclusions: The findings of this study revealed that prevalence of GBS colonization in pregnant women in Greater Accra region is high and comparable to rates observed in South Africa and Western countries. The most prevalent serotypes were serotypes VII and IX, which have not been observed before in West Africa.Item Clonal distribution of pneumococcal serotype 19F isolates from Ghana(Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 2015-04) Sparding, N.; Dayie, N.T.K.D.; Mills, R.O.; Newman, M.J.; Dalsgaard, A.; Frimodt-Møller, N.; Slotved, H.-C.Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Pneumococcal strains are classified according to their capsular polysaccharide and more than 90 different serotypes are currently known.In this project, three distinct groups of pneumococcal carriage isolates from Ghana were investigated; isolates from healthy children in Tamale and isolates from both healthy and children attending the outpatient department at a hospital in Accra. The isolates were previously identified and characterized by Gram staining, serotyping and susceptibility to penicillin. In this study, isolates of the common serotype 19F were further investigated by Multi-Locus Sequence Typing (MLST).Overall, 14 different Sequence Types (STs) were identified by MLST, of which nine were novel based on the international MLST database. Two clones within serotype 19F seem to circulate in Ghana, a known ST (ST 4194) and a novel ST (ST 9090). ST 9090 was only found in healthy children in Accra, whereas ST 4194 was found equally in all children studied. In the MLST database, other isolates of ST 4194 were also associated with serotype 19F, and these isolates came from other West African countries. The majority of isolates were penicillin intermediate resistant.In conclusion, two clones within serotype 19F were found to be dominating in pneumococcal carriage in Accra and Tamale in Ghana. Furthermore, it seems as though the clonal distribution of serotype 19F may be different from what is currently known in Ghana in that many new clones were identified. This supports the importance of continued monitoring of pneumococcal carriage in Ghana and elsewhere when vaccines, e.g., PCV-13, have been introduced to monitor the possible future spread of antimicrobial resistant clones. © 2015.Item Penicillin resistance and serotype distribution of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Ghanaian children less than six years of age(BMC Infectious Diseases, 2013) Dayie, N.T.K.D.; Arhin, R.E.; Newman, M.J.; Dalsgaard, A.; Bisgaard, M.; Frimodt-Møller, N.; Slotved, H.-C.Background: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carriage, serotype distribution, and penicillin resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in children ≤6 years of age in Ghana.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on a cluster-randomized sample of children ≤6 years of age attending nurseries and kindergartens in Accra and Tamale, Ghana. Basic data on age, sex and exposure to antimicrobials in the previous month were collected on all study subjects. Nasopharyngeal swabs were obtained from participants and all pneumococcal isolates were characterized by serotyping and their penicillin resistance determined.Results: The overall prevalence of pneumococcal carriage among the children was 34% in Accra and 31% in Tamale. The predominant serotypes were 19F, 6B, 23F, and 6A with 23% of the isolates being non-typable in Accra and 12% in Tamale. Only two isolates (serotypes 19F and 6B) from Tamale had a MIC >2 μg/ml and were classified as fully penicillin resistant with 45% of the isolates having intermediate resistance.Conclusions: These findings indicate that the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) recently introduced in Ghana will cover 48% and 51% of the serotypes identified in Accra and Tamale, respectively. The 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV-23) will cover 54% of all serotypes detected. The two penicillin resistant isolates (MIC 32 μg/ml) were serotypes included in both PCV-13 and PPV-23. A nationwide monitoring system of penicillin susceptibility patterns and pneumococcal serotypes is recommended. © 2013 Dayie et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Item Pneumococcal carriage among HIV infected children in Accra, Ghana(BioMed Central Ltd., 2017) Donkor, E.S.; Annan, J.A.; Badoe, E.V.; Dayie, N.T.K.D.; Labi, A.-K; Slotved, H.-C.Background: Pneumococcal carriage is the precursor for development of pneumococcal disease, and is also responsible for transmission of the organism from person-to-person. In Africa, little is known about the pneumococcus in relation to people with HIV infection. The aim of the study was to investigate the epidemiology of pneumococcal carriage among HIV infected children visiting a tertiary hospital in Ghana, including the carriage prevalence, risk factors and serotype distribution. Method: This was a cross sectional study carried out from February to May, 2015 at the HIV Paediatric Clinic of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. One hundred and eighteen HIV infected children were recruited and nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs were collected from them. Epidemiological data on demographic, household and clinical features of the study participants were also collected. The NP specimens were cultured for Streptococcus pneumoniae and the isolates were serotyped by latex agglutination. The data of the study was analysed using STATA 11 (Strata Corp, College Station, TX, USA). Results: Prevalence of pneumococcal carriage among the HIV infected children was 27.1% (95% CI: 19.1 to 35.1) and the only factor significantly associated with pneumococcal carriage was the presence of respiratory symptoms (OR, 2.63; CI, 1.06-6.53; p = 0.034). The most prevalent pneumococcal serotype among the study participants was serotype 19F (24.4%), followed by 16F (22%). Serotype coverage of the 13-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in this study was 41.5%. Multiple carriage of pneumococcal serotypes among the positive carriage cases was 34.3%. Conclusion: Pneumococcal carriage occurred in more than a quarter of the study population and was characterized by predominance of non-vaccine serotypes as well as a high prevalence of multiple carriage. Presence of respiratory symptoms appears to be a major determinant of pneumococcal carriage among the study population.