Genomic Investigation Reveals a Community Typhoid Outbreak Caused by Contaminated Drinking Water in China, 2016

Frontiers in Medicine

article

Bin Hu¹  Peibin Hou¹  Lin Teng²  Song Miao³  Lijiang Zhao⁴  Shengxiang Ji⁴  Tao Li⁴  Corinna Kehrenberg⁵  Dianmin Kang¹  Min Yue² 

[1] Shandong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention;Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Zhejiang University;Shandong Medical College;Linyi Center for Disease Control and Prevention;Institute for Veterinary Food Science, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen;State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University;The Hainan Institute of Zhejiang University

关键词: Salmonella Typhi;    outbreak;    typhoid fever;    drinking water;    genomics;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmed.2022.753085

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Typhoid fever is a life-threatening disease caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi ( S . Typhi) and remains a significant public health burden in developing countries. In China, typhoid fever is endemic with a limited number of reported outbreaks. Recently, Chinese local Center for Disease Prevention and Control is starting to apply whole genome sequencing for tracking the source of outbreak isolates. In this study, we conducted a retrospective investigation into a community outbreak of typhoid fever in Lanling, China, in 2016. A total of 26 S . Typhi isolates were recovered from the drinking water ( n = 1) and patients' blood ( n = 24) and stool ( n = 1). Phylogenetic analysis indicated the persistence of the outbreak isolates in drinking water for more than 3 months. The genomic comparison demonstrated a high similarity between the isolate from water and isolates from patients in their genomic content, virulence gene profiles, and antimicrobial resistance gene profile, indicating the S . Typhi isolate from drinking water was responsible for the examined outbreak. The result of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) revealed these isolates had identical PFGE pattern, indicating they are clonal variants. Additionally, phylogeographical analysis of global S. Typhi isolates suggested the outbreak isolates are evolutionarily linked to the isolates from the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Taken together, this study highlights the drinking water and international travel as critical control points of mitigating the outbreak, emphasizing the necessity of regular monitoring of this pathogen in China.

【 授权许可】

CC BY