Scarlet fever-associated mobile genetic elements in Taiwan

Streptococcus pyogenes (group A Streptococcus, GAS) is a gram-positive human pathogen that causes more than 500,000 deaths annually worldwide. In the past few decades, the global resurgence of scarlet fever and invasive GAS infections have been reported. In Asia, specifically in Hong Kong and China, the emm12- and emm1-type GAS carried the homologs of FHKU.vir and ICE-emm12 were over-presented in scarlet fever cases. This study aims to investigate the scarlet fever-associated mobile genetic elements in various emm-type GAS isolates in Taiwan.

化脓性链球菌（Streptococcus pyogenes，即A群链球菌（GAS））是一类革兰氏阳性人类致病菌，每年在全球范围内造成超过50万例死亡。近数十年来，全球范围内已有猩红热与侵袭性A群链球菌感染疫情重现的报道。在亚洲地区，尤其是中国香港与中国大陆，携带FHKU.vir同源序列且携带ICE-emm12的emm12型与emm1型A群链球菌在猩红热病例中检出率显著偏高。本研究旨在探究中国台湾地区不同emm分型A群链球菌分离株中与猩红热相关的可移动遗传元件。