Clinical Studies
Characterization of Streptococcus pyogenes isolates responsible for adult meningitis in France from 2003 to 2013

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2015.12.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Upper respiratory tract infections preceded group A Streptococcus (GAS) meningitis in 40% of the cases.

  • Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and mortality rates of GAS meningitis were 40% and 38%, respectively.

  • The most prevalent emm types associated with GAS meningitis were 1, 3, and 6.

  • Meningeal tropism of GAS remains to be determined.

Abstract

Sixty-three cases of Streptococcus pyogenes meningitis in adults were studied. Three predominant emm types were associated with meningitis: emm1 (44%), emm3 (11%), and emm6 (11%). Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome and mortality rates were 40% and 38%, respectively.

Section snippets

Funding

This study was partly funded by the Institut de Veille Sanitaire, the Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, and INSERM and by a grant from ANR of ERA-Net PathoGenoMics (grant no. ANR-08-MIEN-015).

Transparency declaration

C. Poyart has received reimbursement for attending meetings from bioMérieux, Bio-Rad, Cepheid, and Novartis and has received research funding from Institut Mérieux, Wyeth, and Siemens.

Acknowledgments

We thank the correspondents of the CNR-Strep for sending the isolates and completing the questionnaires. We are grateful to Dr A. Lepoutre (Institut de Veille Sanitaire) for kindly providing the mean number of adult GAS meningitis per year in France (2003–2013). We are indebted to Dr Valérie Pérut for statistical analysis of the data.

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