Poster Presentation 20th Lancefield International Symposium on Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases 2017

Invasive group A Streptococcal disease surveillance (#231)

Ciara Baker 1 , Alissa McMinn 2 , Kristy Azzopardi 1 , Joshua Osowicki 1 3 , Nigel Crawford 2 3 , Natasha Ching 1 , Andrew Steer 1 3
  1. Tropical Diseases, The Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. SAFEVIC, The Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  3. Department of Paediatrics, The Univeristy of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Background: Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is a ubiquitous human pathogen responsible for an unrivalled range of clinical disease. The spectrum of GAS disease includes invasive infections such as bacteraemia, necrotising fasciitis and meningitis. There are few data on the impact of invasive GAS in Australia in children.

Methods: Between 2014 and 2016, we established surveillance for invasive GAS disease at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. This project comprises an Australia-wide roll out of surveillance to six Australian paediatric hospitals in 2017. The aims of the project are:

  1. To describe the epidemiology of invasive GAS disease in children in Australia, with special emphasis on severity, hospital care, and short and long-term outcomes.
  2. To describe the clinical features of invasive GAS disease in hospitalised Australian children.
  3. To establish an ongoing surveillance system for hospitalised Australian children with invasive GAS disease, including the collection of bacterial isolates to advance knowledge of local GAS molecular epidemiology (including emm typing).

Results: In this presentation we outline the methods in establishing national surveillance for paediatric invasive GAS disease in Australia, including case definitions, laboratory techniques and coordination, as well as describing the surveillance network.

Discussion: Understanding the incidence, impact, and molecular epidemiology of invasive GAS disease in Australian children is an important step in raising awareness and advancing the GAS research agenda to promote development of improved management and preventive strategies, including vaccination.