Increase in invasive Streptococcus pyogenes M1 infections with close evolutionary genetic relationship, Iceland and Scotland, 2022 to 2023

• Published in: Eurosurveillance
• Main Authors: Beres, Stephen B., Olsen, Randall J., Long, S. Wesley, Langley, Ross, Williams, Thomas, Erlendsdóttir, Helga, Smith, Andrew, Kristinsson, Karl Gústaf, Musser, James M.
• Other Authors: Other departments, Landspitali - The National University Hospital of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Náttúrufræðingar; Sýklafræði; Epidemiology; Public Health; Environmental and Occupational Health; Virology; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/4897; https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.13.2400129

Publisher Copyright: © 2024 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). All rights reserved. Group A Streptococcus isolates of the recently described M1UK clade have emerged to cause human infections in several European countries and elsewhere. Full-genome sequence analysis of M1 isolates discovered a close genomic relationship between some isolates from Scotland and the majority of isolates from Iceland causing serious infections in 2022 and 2023. Phylogenetic analysis strongly suggests that an isolate from or related to Scotland was the precursor to an M1UK variant responsible for almost all recent M1 infections in Iceland. Peer reviewed