Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes in the north: distinctively different
Deborah Holt A B * and Philip Giffard A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A College of Health and Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811, Australia.
B Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division, Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0811, Australia.
Deborah Holt is a senior lecturer at Charles Darwin University and Honorary Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research. She is a molecular biologist whose research focuses on the molecular epidemiology and pathogenesis of skin pathogens with importance in Indigenous communities in northern Australia. |
Phil Giffard is Head of Laboratory Science at the Menzies School of Health Research and Head of Biomedical Science in the College of Health and Human Science at Charles Darwin University. He has a long-standing research interested in microbial genotyping technology and associated bioinformatic methods. |
* Correspondence to: deborah.holt1@cdu.edu.au
Microbiology Australia 43(3) 104-107 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA22034
Submitted: 28 June 2022 Accepted: 28 August 2022 Published: 20 September 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes are important contributors to disease in northern Australia. Both are opportunistic pathogens, frequently carried on the skin or in the respiratory tract in the absence of disease. A large proportion of the S. aureus strains causing infection in northern Australia possess the Panton Valentine (PVL) toxin, with ST93, ST5, and ST121 being significant. PVL+ strains are associated with both community- and healthcare-associated infections, and a large proportion are methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). MRSA strains known to be healthcare associated (ST239 and ST22) are not prevalent. CC1 PVL− MRSA continue to cause infections. The diversity of S. pyogenes emm types in northern Australia is high with skin tropic and non-tropic emm types predominating. This contrasts with other parts of Australia where emm diversity is lower and rates of pharyngitis higher. The high diversity raises concerns for the likely efficacy of vaccines based on the variable region of the M protein, the nucleotide sequence of which underpins emm typing. It is likely that complex interactions occur between these two important bacterial pathogens, and other important skin pathogens in the region such as the scabies mite.
Keywords: emm typing, M protein, Panton Valentine leucocidin, PVL, pyoderma, rheumatic heart disease, skin infections, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes.
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