This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Schouls, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Witteveen, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Schouls, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Witteveen, S.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2005, p. 2741-2749, Vol. 43, No. 6
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.6.2741-2749.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Increase in Genetic Diversity of Haemophilus influenzae Serotype b (Hib) Strains after Introduction of Hib Vaccination in The Netherlands

Leo M. Schouls,1* Arie van der Ende,2 Ingrid van de Pol,1 Corrie Schot,1 Lodewijk Spanjaard,2 Paul Vauterin,3 Dorus Wilderbeek,1 and Sandra Witteveen1

Laboratory for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands,1 Netherlands Reference Laboratory for Bacterial Meningitis, Department of Medical Microbiology, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,2 Applied Maths, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium3

Received 22 November 2004/ Returned for modification 10 October 2004/ Accepted 11 February 2005

Recently, there has been an increase in The Netherlands in the number of cases of invasive disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib). To study a possible change in the Hib population that could explain the rise in incidence, a multiple-locus variable number tandem repeats analysis (MLVA) was developed to genotype H. influenzae isolates. The MLVA enabled the differentiation of H. influenzae serotype b strains with higher discriminatory power than multilocus sequence typing (MLST). MLVA profiles of noncapsulated H. influenzae and H. influenzae serotype f strains were more heterogeneous than serotype b strains and were distinct from Hib, although some overlap occurred. The MLVA was used to genotype a collection of 520 H. influenzae serotype b strains isolated from patients in The Netherlands with invasive disease. The strains were collected from 1983 from 2002, covering a time period of 10 years before and 9 years after the introduction of the Hib vaccine in the Dutch national vaccination program. MLVA revealed a sharp increase in genetic diversity of Hib strains isolated from neonates to 4-year-old patients after 1993, when the Hib vaccine was introduced. Hib strains isolated from patients older than 4 years in age were genetically diverse, and no significant change in diversity was seen after the introduction of the vaccine. These observations suggest that after the introduction of the Hib vaccine young children no longer constitute the reservoir for Hib and that they are infected by adults carrying genetically diverse Hib strains.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands. Phone: 31302742121. Fax: 31302744449. E-mail: LM.Schouls{at}rivm.nl.


Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2005, p. 2741-2749, Vol. 43, No. 6
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.6.2741-2749.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




This article has been cited by other articles:

  • de Vries, S. P. W., Bootsma, H. J., Hays, J. P., Hermans, P. W. M. (2009). Molecular Aspects of Moraxella catarrhalis Pathogenesis. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 73: 389-406 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Martcheva, M., Bolker, B. M, Holt, R. D (2008). Vaccine-induced pathogen strain replacement: what are the mechanisms?. J R Soc Interface 5: 3-13 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Siebenga, J. J., Vennema, H., Renckens, B., de Bruin, E., van der Veer, B., Siezen, R. J., Koopmans, M. (2007). Epochal Evolution of GGII.4 Norovirus Capsid Proteins from 1995 to 2006. J. Virol. 81: 9932-9941 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Broza, Y. Y., Danin-Poleg, Y., Lerner, L., Broza, M., Kashi, Y. (2007). Vibrio vulnificus Typing Based on Simple Sequence Repeats: Insights into the Biotype 3 Group. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 2951-2959 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Boxrud, D., Pederson-Gulrud, K., Wotton, J., Medus, C., Lyszkowicz, E., Besser, J., Bartkus, J. M. (2007). Comparison of Multiple-Locus Variable-Number Tandem Repeat Analysis, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis, and Phage Typing for Subtype Analysis of Salmonella enterica Serotype Enteritidis. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 536-543 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Aracil, B., Slack, M., Perez-Vazquez, M., Roman, F., Ramsay, M., Campos, J. (2006). Molecular Epidemiology of Haemophilus influenzae Type b Causing Vaccine Failures in the United Kingdom.. J. Clin. Microbiol. 44: 1645-1649 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Schouls, L. M., van der Ende, A., Damen, M., van de Pol, I. (2006). Multiple-Locus Variable-Number Tandem Repeat Analysis of Neisseria meningitidis Yields Groupings Similar to Those Obtained by Multilocus Sequence Typing. J. Clin. Microbiol. 44: 1509-1518 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Skoczynska, A., Kadlubowski, M., Empel, J., Hryniewicz, W. (2005). Characteristics of Haemophilus influenzae Type b Responsible for Meningitis in Poland from 1997 to 2004. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 5665-5669 [Abstract] [Full Text]