Clonal diversity of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi isolated from patients with typhoid fever in Tehran

Infectious diseases in Iran: a bird's eye view

Thanks to improved health standards in Iran over the past three decades, we have witnessed a shift in the causes of death in Iran from infectious causes to non-communicable diseases-mainly cardiovascular disorders, cancers, and road traffic injuries. The incidence and prevalence of many infectious diseases, such as many parasitic infections, have fallen significantly; there have been no reported cases of dracunculiasis in Iran since the mid-1970s. Great strides have also been made towards the elimination of schistosomiasis in Iran. However, we still have some problems with cutaneous leishmaniasis, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus, tuberculosis, infections among immunocompromised hosts, hospital-acquired infections, and antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. We need to emphasize improvements in sanitation, good clinical practice, and education about the rational administration of antibiotics.

Clustering analysis of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi isolates in Korea by PFGE, ribotying, and phage typing

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi is a Gram-negative bacterium causing the acute febrile disease typhoid fever. In Korea from 2004 to 2006, a total of 51 Salmonella Typhi isolates were identified in stool and blood from healthy carriers and patients with or without overseas travel histories. In this study, antibiogram, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and automated ribotyping were performed as molecular epidemiological methods with phage typing as a classical subtyping tool of the isolates. Only two isolates were multidrug resistant and 82.3% of the isolates were susceptible to 16 antimicrobial agents tested. When the dendrogram was created based on the PFGE results, the subtypes could be clustered into five groups by 80% similarity criterion. The PFGE patterns of 31 isolates (60.8%) belonged to Cluster 3, the predominant cluster in the study. Three overseas travel-associated cases were differentiated into Cluster 4 of which three isolates were nalidixic acid or multidrug resistant. Major phage type and ribotype were A and PvuII-436-8-S-6, respectively. This study also showed the prevalence of PFGE Cluster 3 in Korea by clustering analysis and the link between some typhoid cases and travel to Cambodia, India, or Indonesia.