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. 2023 Sep;28(36):2300422.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.36.2300422.

Increase in bloodstream infections caused by emm 1 group A Streptococcus correlates with emergence of toxigenic M1UK, Belgium, May 2022 to August 2023

Juan Pablo Rodriguez-Ruiz  1   2 , Qiang Lin  1   2 , Christine Lammens  1   2 , Pierre R Smeesters  2   3 , Stefanie van Kleef-van Koeveringe  2   4 , Veerle Matheeussen  1   2   4 , Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar  1   2
Affiliations

Increase in bloodstream infections caused by emm 1 group A Streptococcus correlates with emergence of toxigenic M1UK, Belgium, May 2022 to August 2023

Juan Pablo Rodriguez-Ruiz et al. Euro Surveill. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Many European countries have recently reported upsurges in invasive group A Streptococcus (iGAS) infections, mainly caused by emm1 Streptococcus pyogenes, specifically the toxigenic M1UK lineage. We present the epidemiology of emm1 causing iGAS in Belgium during 2018-August 2023, and describe an emergence of the toxigenic M1UK lineage in Belgium in mid-2022 that was observed as an increase in bloodstream infections caused by emm1 S. pyogenes that continued into 2023.

Keywords: Streptococcus pyogenes; bloodstream infections; emm1; invasive group A Streptococcus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of invasive group A Streptococcus infections caused by Streptococcus pyogenes, Belgium, 2018–August 2023
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of emm1 invasive group A Streptococcus and bloodstream infections caused by the M1UK lineage, Belgium, January 2018–August 2023
Figure 3
Figure 3
Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) distance matrix representing number of whole genome SNPs between all included isolates, Belgium, Jan 2020–May 2023 (n = 149)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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