Microbial strain typing in surveillance and outbreak investigation: past, present and future

Matthew VN O’Sullivan

doi:10.1071/MA14014

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Microbial strain typing in surveillance and outbreak investigation: past, present and future

Matthew VN O’Sullivan

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
Pathology West: Institute for Clinical Pathology and Medical Research (ICPMR)
Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity
Westmead Hospital
Locked Bag 9001
Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
Tel: +61 2 9845 6255
Fax: +61 2 9893 8659
Email: matthew.osullivan@health.nsw.gov.au

Microbiology Australia 35(1) 52-53 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA14014
Published: 5 February 2014

Abstract

It is estimated that 180 000 cases of hospital-acquired infections occur in Australian hospitals each year¹. Many of these follow colonisation of patients by nosocomial bacterial pathogens. Identifying these acquisition events is necessary to target infection control interventions and to accurately estimate the burden of hospital-acquired infections on our healthcare system. Strain typing is required to reliably monitor these nosocomial acquisition events, particularly for organisms with high background incidence like Staphylococcus aureus. Traditional strain typing methods have been used in a limited, retrospective fashion to confirm suspected outbreaks, but newer technologies allow routine, prospective strain typing to detect transmission soon after it occurs and whole genome sequencing allows the identification of the direction of transmission chains.

References

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