Knowledge Exchange Newsletter, May 2017

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Stories of Typhoid: Meet Gul Rahim

In the most powerful and moving Story of Typhoid yet, 15-year-old Gul Rahim tells us in his own words how his dreams and hopes for the future were irreparably damaged by a serious battle with typhoid. Read his story.

Featured

The Coalition against Typhoid is proud to announce that Dr. Samir Saha, the chair of our steering committee, is the distinguished recipient of the American Society of Microbiology’s 2017 Award for Research in Clinical Microbiology. This award recognizes a clinical microbiologist for outstanding lifetime achievements that have led to or formed the foundation for important applications in clinical microbiology. Dr. Saha is the first researcher based in a low-income country to win this prestigious award. We at the Coalition against Typhoid are honored to have Dr. Saha on our steering committee helping to guide our strategy, outreach and activities.

From the Blog

  • New Findings for Typhoid Fever in Africa – The results of the Typhoid Surveillance in Africa Project, a first-of-its-kind study, shed light on the true burden of typhoid and multi-drug resistance in Africa
  • From Evidence to Action: Typhoid Experts Exchange Data, Strategies During Biannual Conference – More than 300 researchers from 45 countries gathered in Kampala, Uganda in early April for the 10th International Conference on Typhoid and Other Invasive Salmonelloses. Hosted by the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Coalition against Typhoid, the three-day conference – the world’s only such meeting devoted to the diseases – centered on the theme “From Evidence to Action” as attendees reviewed crucial developments to reduce the global burden of these diseases

Typhoid Watch

  • Fiji – The increasing incidence of typhoid cases in Nalawa, Fiji is largely due to the drinking of grog mixed with contaminated water
  • Malaysia – The Health Ministry has issued 309 injunctions against food outlet operators who failed to ensure that their food handlers received typhoid vaccines
  • New Zealand – The March/April typhoid outbreak in Auckland, New Zealand has spread to Palmerston North, infecting two children
  • Philippines – A father and his daughter have died four days apart from each other after falling ill with typhoid fever. A four-year-old boy from the same family and two other patients are still in the hospital
  • Syria – A typhoid crisis is threatening to overwhelm the city of al-Bab, still reeling from recent conflict between the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic State. Dozens of residents are daily contracting typhoid fever from wells contaminated with raw sewage
  • Tonga – A total of 17 typhoid cases have been recorded to date in Tonga, the majority of which are women and children
  • Zambia – An outbreak of typhoid attributed to water shortages has taken the life of an eleven-year-old girl. Ninety-two cases in total have been recorded
  • Zimbabwe – A humanitarian situation report from the UN Children’s Fund found that Zimbabwe has seen more than 2,200 suspected typhoid cases since the beginning of the year

Antimicrobial Resistance

  • Kenya – Typhoid researcher Sam Kariuki warns that H58, a deadly typhoid strain circulating widely in East Africa, is now resistant to 60 percent of locally available antibiotics
  • India – Widespread use of over-the-counter antibiotics are increasing drug resistance in typhoid, making the disease harder to treat
  • World Health Organization – Antimicrobial resistance is a global health challenge on the rise in every region of the world, and an epidemic of multidrug-resistant typhoid has been rolling across parts of Africa and Asia

Publications

Antibiotic Resistance

  • Antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica serovars Typhi and Paratyphi isolates from a general hospital in Karawaci, Tangerang, Indonesia: A five-year review – International Journal of Microbiology
  • Genotypic and phenotypic characterization of multidrug resistant Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Kentucky strains recovered from chicken carcasses – PLOS One
  • The impact of migration and antimicrobial resistance on the transmission dynamics of typhoid fever in Kathmandu, Nepal: A mathematical modelling study – PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Complications and Case Studies

Diagnostics

  • Performance of TUBEX® TF in the diagnosis of enteric fever in private tertiary care Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan – The Journal of Pakistan Medical Association
  • Reproducible diagnostic metabolites in plasma from typhoid fever patients in Asia and Africa – eLife

Epidemiology

Host Susceptibility

  • Challenge of humans with wild-type Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi elicits changes in the activation and homing characteristics of mucosal-associated invariant T cells – Frontiers in Immunology

Vaccines

  • A novel approach for construction of an inactivated typhoid vaccine candidate that effectively augments both humoral and cellular immune responses – Vaccine
  • Correlates of protection for enteric vaccines – Vaccine
  • Cost-effectiveness analysis of typhoid conjugate vaccines in five endemic low- and middle-income settings – Vaccine
  • Differential effects of inflammatory and psychosocial stress on mood, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and inflammation in remitted depression – Neuropsychobiology
  • Expression, purification and evaluation of recombinant lipoprotein of Salmonella Typhi as a vaccine candidate – Biologicals
  • Vi capsular polysaccharide produced by recombinant Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A confers immunoprotection against infection by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi – Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology