Invasive Bacterial Diseases Section

The Invasive Bacterial Diseases Section provides surveillance, reference diagnostic services, and research on Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus agalactiae, Haemophilus influenzae, Bordetella pertussis, Neisseria meningitidis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae,and Mycoplasma genitalium.

The National Laboratory Surveillance of Invasive Streptococcal Disease in Canada (eSTREP) program characterizes the types of Streptococcal cultures causing disease by serotypes, emm types and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to monitor trends in disease and support outbreak investigation. Surveillance reports are published annually in peer-reviewed journals. The H. influenzae and N. meningitidis surveillance work aims to improve the understanding of circulating strains, monitor trends in invasive disease, and support outbreak investigation. H. influenzae and N. meningitidis isolates are characterized by serotype/serogroup, MLST, typing of virulence factor genes, and AMR. Research and surveillance work on B. pertussis characterizes circulating strains by serotype, virulence factor genes, MLST, and screening for the emergence of macrolide resistant isolates.

The Enhanced Invasive Group A Streptococcus Surveillance System and Enhanced Invasive Meningococcal Disease Surveillance System (eIMDSS) link laboratory data to epidemiological case data, including vaccination status where available. eSTREP, H. influenzae and N. meningitidis data supports public health outbreak investigations and is used by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to update vaccine guidelines. In addition, the Invasive Bacterial Diseases Section participates in international and national surveillance programs such as the Canadian Ward Surveillance Study (CANWARD), the Immunization Monitoring Program Active (IMPACT), International Circumpolar Surveillance (ICS) and the Invasive Respiratory Infections Surveillance (IRIS) Consortium.

The N. gonorrhoeae work includes the Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Program – Canada (GASP-Canada) which characterizes antimicrobial-resistant N. gonorrhoeae causing disease to monitor trends and support outbreak investigations. Gonococcal surveillance data is published annually in peer-reviewed journals. A subset of GASP-Canada isolates are included in the Enhanced Surveillance of Antimicrobial-Resistant Gonorrhea (ESAG) system which links laboratory and epidemiological case data including gonorrhea treatment and risk factor data. In regions where N. gonorrhoeae cultures are not available, NMLB is now able to predict antimicrobial resistance directly from clinical specimens, providing valuable AMR surveillance data to these jurisdictions. GASP-Canada and ESAG data improves the understanding of emerging gonorrhea antimicrobial resistance trends in Canada and are used by the National Advisory Committee on Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (NAC-STBBI) to update treatment recommendations.  With the global rise in resistance to first-line treatment antimicrobials, a treatment failure or ceftriaxone resistance case report form has been developed to ensure the tracking of these cases in Canada. The M. genitalium program focuses on determining azithromycin and moxifloxacin antimicrobial resistance.