A5015550157- Pneumonia and Respiratory Infections
- Respiratory viral infections research
- Bacterial Infections and Vaccines
- Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia detection and treatment
- Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
- Streptococcal Infections and Treatments
- Influenza Virus Research Studies
- Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus
- Sinusitis and nasal conditions
- Bacterial Identification and Susceptibility Testing
- Computational Drug Discovery Methods
- Pediatric health and respiratory diseases
- Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology
- Antimicrobial agents and applications
- Infective Endocarditis Diagnosis and Management
- Neonatal and Maternal Infections
- Hepatitis B Virus Studies
- Protein Structure and Dynamics
- Infant Nutrition and Health
- Acoustic Wave Resonator Technologies
- Viral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology
- Otolaryngology and Infectious Diseases
- HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
- HIV Research and Treatment
University of the Witwatersrand
2017-2025
National Research Foundation
2017-2025
South African Medical Research Council
2021-2025
Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit
2017-2022
Department of Science and Innovation
2018
Klebsiella pneumoniae causes community- and healthcare-associated infections in children adults. Globally 2019, an estimated 1.27 million (95% Uncertainty Interval [UI]: 0.91-1.71) 4.95 UI: 3.62-6.57) deaths were attributed to associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR), respectively. K. was the second leading pathogen AMR resistant bacteria. Furthermore, rise of both hospital-acquired is a concern for neonates infants who are at high risk invasive disease. There limited...
Background Due to high costs of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV), transitioning from a two (2 + 1) single dose (1 primary series with booster should be considered. This study evaluated the immune response at 18 months age following 1 compared 2 schedule 10-valent (PCV10) and 13-valent (PCV13) vaccines.
Background Serotype specific estimates of pneumococcal invasiveness used in carriage transmission models to predict changes disease incidence post vaccination are largely derived from high income settings. We conducted a systematic review prevalence and invasive (IPD) calculate case-carrier ratios (CCRs) different Methods A search Medline, Embase, Global Health databases March 2022 identified publications on or IPD incidence; we requested individual-level data authors relevant texts....
Abstract Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPn) colonizes multiple anatomical sites and is a leading cause of invasive disease death in African children; however, there no comparative genomic analysis between colonizing strains. This study investigated the relatedness KPn isolates South infants; evaluated relative invasiveness based on sequence types (ST), capsular (KL), lipopolysaccharide (O) loci by calculating case-carrier ratios (CCRs). There was less diversity amongst (22 ST, 17 K-loci) than (31...
Abstract Sensitive tools for detecting concurrent colonizing pneumococcal serotypes are needed detailed evaluation of the direct and indirect impact routine conjugate vaccine (PCV) immunization. A high-throughput quantitative nanofluidic real-time PCR (Standard BioTools ‘Fluidigm’) reaction-set was developed to detect quantify 92 in archived clinical samples. Nasopharyngeal swabs collected 2009–2011 from South African children ≤ 5 years-old, previously serotyped with standard culture-based...
S. pneumoniae is a common colonizer of the human nasopharynx in high income and low-middle countries. Due to limitations standard culture methods, prevalence concurrent colonization with multiple serotypes unclear. We evaluated use multiplex quantitative PCR (qPCR) detect pneumococcal serotypes/group archived nasopharyngeal swabs conjugate vaccine naive children who had previously been investigated by traditional methods. Overall detection was higher qPCR (82%) compared (71%; p < 0.001),...
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) immunisation has reduced vaccine-serotype colonisation and invasive pneumococcal disease in South Africa, providing the opportunity to consider transitioning from a two-dose (2 + 1) one-dose (1 primary series booster dose.In this single-centre, open-label, randomised trial done infants aged 35-49 days without HIV infection, childhood immunisations except for BCG polio, with gestation age at delivery of least 37 weeks age, birthweight 2500 g, weight 3500 g...
Deployment of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as face masking and physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic could have altered transmission dynamics carriage respiratory organisms. We evaluated colonisation with Streptococcus pneumoniae other upper tract bacterial colonisers before pandemic. did two cross-sectional surveys in Soweto, South Africa from July 3 to Dec 13, 2018 (pre-COVID-19 period) Aug 4, 2021, March 31, 2022 (COVID-19 healthy children (aged ≤60 months) who had...
Abstract Traditional qPCR assays for pneumococcal detection and serotype characterization require large sample volume, is expensive labor intensive. We aimed to develop a quantitative nanofluidic Fluidigm assay overcome some of these shortcomings. A was established detect 11 bacterial pathogens, 55 serotypes 6 H . influenzae The results were compared conventional culture. All reactions in the effectively amplified their respective targets with high sensitivity specificity qPCR. There...
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major human pathogen responsible for over 317000 deaths in children <5 years of age with the burden disease being highest low- and middle-income countries including South Africa. Following introduction 7-valent 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) Africa 2009 2011, respectively, decrease both invasive infections asymptomatic carriage vaccine-type pneumococci were reported. In this study, we described changing epidemiology population Africa, by...
The development of new antimicrobial drugs is needed to combat multi-drug resistant and novel hypervirulent strains Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPN) that are associated with increased morbidity mortality globally. FabI protein plays a crucial role in fatty acid biosynthesis has been identified as an important target for in-silico, in-vitro, in-vivo drug discovery. In this study we have used computer integrated-drug discovery approaches binding-free energy calculations identify three inhibitors...
Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) reduce pneumococcal-associated disease by reducing vaccine-serotype (VT) acquisition in vaccinated children, thereby interrupting VT transmission. The 7-valent-PCV was introduced the South African immunization program 2009 (13-valent-PCV since 2011) using a 2+1 schedule (at 6, 14, and 40 weeks of age). We aimed to evaluate temporal changes non-vaccine-serotype (NVT) colonization after 9 years childhood PCV Africa.Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from...
Acinetobacter baumannii is a Gram-negative multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogen primarily associated with nosocomial infections resulting in increased morbidity and mortality adults infants, especially sub-Saharan Africa where the clinical burden high. New therapeutics are needed to treat reduce transmission. The study used computer-integrated drug discovery approaches including pharmacophore modelling, molecular docking, dynamics simulation screen potential inhibitors against enoyl-acyl...
This study focused on evaluating the effect of infant vaccination with 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), using a multiplex qPCR method, density serotype-specific nasopharyngeal colonization in order to delineate relative role serotype replacement versus unmasking as cause for increase nonvaccine PCV7-vaccinated children. is pertinent context ongoing deployment PCV immunization children, surveillance considered an early proxy disease that might arise from serotypes, well success...
Background: Non-pharmaceutical interventions to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 spread affected the circulation and illness due other endemic respiratory pathogens early in COVID-19 pandemic. We undertook an observational study investigate incidence of hospitalization for overall selected pathogen-specific causes lower tract infection (LRTI) during pandemic compared this with pre-pandemic period.Methods: Surveillance data from two public hospitals Soweto, South Africa, serving a low-middle income...
Abstract Postmortem minimally invasive tissue sampling together with the detailed review of clinical records has been shown to be highly successful in determining cause neonatal deaths. However, conventional tests including traditional culture methods and nucleic acid amplification have periodically proven insufficient detect causative agent infectious In this study, metagenomic next generation sequencing was used explore for putative pathogens associated deaths post-mortem blood lung...
Abstract Current real-time high-throughput Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) methods do not distinguish serotypes 6A from 6B, 18C 18A/B and 22F 22A. We established a nanofluidic PCR (Fluidigm) for serotyping that included Dual-Priming-Oligonucleotides (DPO), Locked-Nucleic-Acid (LNA) probe TaqMan assay-sets serotyping. The designed target capsular gene wci P in serogroup 6, X wxc M 18, wcw A 22. An algorithm combining results published (6A/B/C/D; 6C/D; 18A/B/C; 22A/F) 6A/C; 18B/C/F; 18C/F,...
Chronic lung disease is a major cause of morbidity in African children with HIV infection; however, the microbial determinants HIV-associated chronic (HCLD) remain poorly understood. We conducted case-control study to investigate prevalence and densities respiratory microbes among pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)-naive (HCLD +) without HCLD (HCLD-) established on antiretroviral treatment (ART).
<ns4:p><ns4:italic>Streptococcus pneumoniae</ns4:italic> remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children <5-years-old sub-Saharan Africa. Monitoring serotype-specific nasopharyngeal colonisation can serve as proxy to evaluate the effect vaccination against vaccine-serotype (VT) disease. We evaluated impact 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13, 2+1 schedule) immunisation on pneumococcus, other bacterial among healthy rural South African <60-months-old, eight...
Surveillance on nasopharyngeal