Bacteria that causes diarrhoea sends experts back to drawing board
What you need to know:
- Research is essential to informing vaccine development and implementation as well as other aspects of disease control.
- Reseachers point out that there is urgent need to revise treatment of the disease.
Scientists now say that they need to rework their approach to tacking Shigella bacteria, which causes an infection known as shigellosis that is characterised by fever, stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
This comes after in a new paper published in Nature Microbiology, researchers analysed whole-genome sequences of 1,246 Shigella samples systematically collected from seven low and middle income countries (LMICs) to characterise this diversity, which is essential to informing vaccine development and implementation as well as other aspects of disease control.
According to experts, Shigella is the leading bacterial cause of severe childhood diarrhoea in LMICs and is becoming increasingly antimicrobial resistant.
They explain that the collection of samples covered all four Shigella species (S. sonnei, S. flexneri, S. boydii, and S. dysenteriae).
They further disclose that Shigella sonnei contributes to at least six times more disease than other Shigella species relative to its genomic diversity, and that existing diversity and adaptative capacity among S. flexneri may generate vaccine escape variants in less than six months.
“Pathogen genomics is a powerful tool that has a wide range of applications to help combat infectious diseases. Through genomic analyses of an epidemiologically representative dataset, we revealed the extent of Shigella population genomic diversity impacting those who are most vulnerable to shigellosis, and the implications that this diversity has on current vaccine strategies.” Dr Rebecca Benson ,who led analysis of the data, explains.
The lead researcher, Dr Kate Baker, points out that there is urgent need to revise treatment of the disease.
“The genomic diversity in Shigella presents a major hurdle in controlling the disease and we have demonstrated the anticipated pitfalls of current vaccination approaches and this highlights the need to consider genomic diversity in vaccine development and treatment plans for Shigella and other pathogens,” Dr Baker notes.
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