Emerging Infectious Disease ISSN: 1080-6059

Mass Antibiotic Treatment for Group A Streptococcus Outbreaks in Two Long-Term Care Facilities¹

Andrea Smith*†, Aimin Li‡, Ornella Tolomeo*, Gregory J. Tyrell§†, Frances Jamieson‡, and David Fisman*¶

Author affiliations: *City of Hamilton Social and Public Health Services Department, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; †University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; ‡Canada Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; §Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; ¶McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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Figure 1

Molecular epidemiology of group A streptococcus (GAS) strains in outbreak. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis, demonstrating relatedness of group A streptococcal isolates from an person with clinical illness from GAS, a person with chronic colonization with GAS, and asymptomatically colonized facility staff and residents. Lanes 1 and 15 contain an ATCC quality control strain. Lane 14 contains an isolate from another nursing facility, unrelated to outbreak 1. The isolate in lane 2 (large solid arro

Figure 1. Molecular epidemiology of group A streptococcus (GAS) strains in outbreak. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis, demonstrating relatedness of group A streptococcal isolates from an person with clinical illness from GAS, a person with chronic colonization with GAS, and asymptomatically colonized facility staff and residents. Lanes 1 and 15 contain an ATCC quality control strain. Lane 14 contains an isolate from another nursing facility, unrelated to outbreak 1. The isolate in lane 2 (large solid arrow) was obtained from index case-patient 2 in January 2001. The isolate in lane 7 (large hollow arrow) was obtained from a person with chronic GAS colonization (resident A) in May 2001. Small solid arrows denote electrophoretically identical GAS strains from other persons with asymptomatic colonization with group A streptococcus in May 2001. Asterisk denotes staff member.

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¹Presented in part at the 12th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), April 6–9, 2002, Salt Lake City, Utah.

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