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Ong HH, Toh WK, Thong LY, Phoon LQ, Clarke SC, Cheah ESG. Investigation of Upper Respiratory Carriage of Bacterial Pathogens among University Students in Kampar, Malaysia. Trop Med Infect Dis 2023; 8:tropicalmed8050269. [PMID: 37235317 DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed8050269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2023] [Revised: 04/29/2023] [Accepted: 05/02/2023] [Indexed: 05/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The carriage of bacterial pathogens in the human upper respiratory tract (URT) is associated with a risk of invasive respiratory tract infections, but the related epidemiological information on this at the population level is scarce in Malaysia. This study aimed to investigate the URT carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Neisseria meningitidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa among 100 university students by nasal and oropharyngeal swabbing. The presence of S. aureus, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa was assessed via swab culture on selective media and PCR on the resulting isolates. For S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae and N. meningitidis, their presence was assessed via multiplex PCR on the total DNA extracts from chocolate agar cultures. The carriage prevalence of H. influenzae, S. aureus, S. pneumoniae, K. pneumoniae, N. meningitidis and P. aeruginosa among the subjects was 36%, 27%, 15%, 11%, 5% and 1%, respectively, by these approaches. Their carriage was significantly higher in males compared to females overall. The S. aureus, K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa isolates were also screened by the Kirby-Bauer assay, in which 51.6% of S. aureus were penicillin-resistant. The outcomes from carriage studies are expected to contribute to informing infectious disease control policies and guidelines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hing Huat Ong
- Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
| | - Wai Keat Toh
- Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
| | - Li Ying Thong
- Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
| | - Lee Quen Phoon
- Department of Allied Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
- Centre for Biomedical and Nutrition Research, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
| | - Stuart C Clarke
- Faculty of Medicine and Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
- NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK
- Global Health Research Institute, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
- School of Postgraduate Studies, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
- Centre for Translational Research, Institute for Research, Development, and Innovation, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
| | - Eddy Seong Guan Cheah
- Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
- Centre for Biomedical and Nutrition Research, Kampar Campus, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar 31900, Malaysia
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Farahani H, Ghaznavi-Rad E, Mondanizadeh M, MirabSamiee S, Khansarinejad B. Specific detection of common pathogens of acute bacterial meningitis using an internally controlled tetraplex-PCR assay. Mol Cell Probes 2016; 30:261-265. [PMID: 27401970 DOI: 10.1016/j.mcp.2016.07.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2016] [Revised: 07/06/2016] [Accepted: 07/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Accurate and timely diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis is critical for antimicrobial treatment of patients. Although PCR-based methods have been widely used for the diagnosis of acute meningitis caused by bacterial pathogens, the main disadvantage of these methods is their high cost. This disadvantage has hampered the widespread use of molecular assays in many developing countries. The application of multiplex assays and "in-house" protocols are two main approaches that can reduce the overall cost of a molecular test. In the present study, an internally controlled tetraplex-PCR was developed and validated for the specific detection of Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples. The analysis of a panel of other human pathogens showed no cross-reactivity in the assay. The analytical sensitivity of the in-house assay was 792.3 copies/ml, when all three bacteria were presentin the specimens. This value was calculated as 444.5, 283.7, 127.8 copies/ml when only S. pneumoniae, N. meningitidis and H. influenzae, respectively, were present. To demonstrate the diagnostic performance of the assay, a total of 150 archival CSF samples were tested and compared with a commercial multiplex real-time PCR kit. A diagnostic sensitivity of 92.8% and a specificity of 95.1% were determined for the present tetraplex-PCR assay. The results indicate that the established method is sensitive, specific and cost-effective, and can be used particularly in situations where the high cost of commercial kits prevents the use of molecular methods for the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hamidreza Farahani
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
| | - Ehsanollah Ghaznavi-Rad
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran; Molecular and Medicine Research Center, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
| | - Mahdieh Mondanizadeh
- Molecular and Medicine Research Center, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran; Department of Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
| | - Siamak MirabSamiee
- Food and Drug Laboratory Research Center, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran
| | - Behzad Khansarinejad
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran; Molecular and Medicine Research Center, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran.
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