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Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia

BACKGROUND: An outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis occurred in the Darwin region of the Northern Territory (NT) in 2014. We aimed to determine the source and risk factors associated with the outbreak and describe the clinical spectrum of cases seen. METHODS: Epidemiological investigation of cases o...

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Autores principales: McGuinness, Sarah L., Boyd, Rowena, Kidd, Sarah, McLeod, Charlie, Krause, Vicki L., Ralph, Anna P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4711041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26758905
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-016-1338-0
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author McGuinness, Sarah L.
Boyd, Rowena
Kidd, Sarah
McLeod, Charlie
Krause, Vicki L.
Ralph, Anna P.
author_facet McGuinness, Sarah L.
Boyd, Rowena
Kidd, Sarah
McLeod, Charlie
Krause, Vicki L.
Ralph, Anna P.
author_sort McGuinness, Sarah L.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: An outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis occurred in the Darwin region of the Northern Territory (NT) in 2014. We aimed to determine the source and risk factors associated with the outbreak and describe the clinical spectrum of cases seen. METHODS: Epidemiological investigation of cases of cutaneous sporotrichosis identified through the Royal Darwin Hospital was undertaken to investigate risk factors and potential sources of infection. Data were collected through chart review and individual patient interviews. Environmental investigation followed identification of a common risk factor. RESULTS: Nine confirmed cases of cutaneous sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix schenckii were identified with onset of symptoms between April and July 2014. Patients were aged 29 to 70 years and seven were male (78 %). Two strains of S. schenckii were identified, neither of which have been previously documented. One common risk factor was identified: all patients were occupational or recreational gardeners, with each reporting exposure to mulching hay, originating from a single NT farm. Local environmental health officers visited the farm and the owners confirmed that the implicated hay had been stored over the monsoon season and had been affected by rain. Storage of hay over the wet season was a new practice. CONCLUSIONS: This constitutes the third reported outbreak of S. schenckii sporotrichosis attributable to contaminated hay in Australia and the first outbreak of sporotrichosis in the NT. This outbreak prompted public health interventions, including distribution of information to general practitioners, farmers and suppliers in the Top End. Media reporting led to the identification and treatment of an additional case. Local practitioners should remain alert to the possibility of further occurrences of sporotrichosis.
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spelling pubmed-47110412016-01-14 Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia McGuinness, Sarah L. Boyd, Rowena Kidd, Sarah McLeod, Charlie Krause, Vicki L. Ralph, Anna P. BMC Infect Dis Research Article BACKGROUND: An outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis occurred in the Darwin region of the Northern Territory (NT) in 2014. We aimed to determine the source and risk factors associated with the outbreak and describe the clinical spectrum of cases seen. METHODS: Epidemiological investigation of cases of cutaneous sporotrichosis identified through the Royal Darwin Hospital was undertaken to investigate risk factors and potential sources of infection. Data were collected through chart review and individual patient interviews. Environmental investigation followed identification of a common risk factor. RESULTS: Nine confirmed cases of cutaneous sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix schenckii were identified with onset of symptoms between April and July 2014. Patients were aged 29 to 70 years and seven were male (78 %). Two strains of S. schenckii were identified, neither of which have been previously documented. One common risk factor was identified: all patients were occupational or recreational gardeners, with each reporting exposure to mulching hay, originating from a single NT farm. Local environmental health officers visited the farm and the owners confirmed that the implicated hay had been stored over the monsoon season and had been affected by rain. Storage of hay over the wet season was a new practice. CONCLUSIONS: This constitutes the third reported outbreak of S. schenckii sporotrichosis attributable to contaminated hay in Australia and the first outbreak of sporotrichosis in the NT. This outbreak prompted public health interventions, including distribution of information to general practitioners, farmers and suppliers in the Top End. Media reporting led to the identification and treatment of an additional case. Local practitioners should remain alert to the possibility of further occurrences of sporotrichosis. BioMed Central 2016-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4711041/ /pubmed/26758905 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-016-1338-0 Text en © McGuinness et al. 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
McGuinness, Sarah L.
Boyd, Rowena
Kidd, Sarah
McLeod, Charlie
Krause, Vicki L.
Ralph, Anna P.
Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia
title Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia
title_full Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia
title_fullStr Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia
title_full_unstemmed Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia
title_short Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, Northern Territory, Australia
title_sort epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of cutaneous sporotrichosis, northern territory, australia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4711041/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26758905
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-016-1338-0
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