KRISP NEWS
The South African Obstetric Surveillance System Consortium in partnership with the SA MRC Maternal and Infant Health Strategies Unit and KRISP/UKZN invites clinicians from South African obstetric institutions to participate in this national study.
This report presents the findings and recommendations of an investigation into a nosocomial outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) at St. Augustine’s Hospital in Durban, South Africa. The investigation began on 4 April after the identification of a number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and three deaths at the hospital. Investigation methods included medical record reviews, ward visits, and interviews with health care workers and management. A detailed timeline of patient cases was constructed to generate hypotheses as to the spread of infection through the hospital. In addition, DNA sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid extracted from nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples was performed and phylogenetic analysis was conducted.
The investigation found that between 9 March and 30 April 2020, there were 119 confirmed cases identified at St. Augustine’s Hospital (39 patients and 80 staff). Fifteen of the 39 patients died (case fatality rate 38.5%). The most plausible explanation for the outbreak is that there was a single introduction of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
The coronavirus spread rapidly through Netcare St. Augustine’s Hospital and beyond and made up 14% of KwaZulu-Natal’s infections by the end of April. The study, seen by Bhekisisa, was conducted by researchers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine and the KwaZulu?Natal Research Innovation & Sequencing Platform, Krisp.
An investigation has found there were 119 confirmed cases of coronavirus at Durban's St Augustine's Hospital by the end of last month. The probe into the Covid-19 outbreak at the hospital was led by a team at University of KwaZuu-Natal.
Durban - The Netcare group has welcomed the findings of a report which investigated the outbreak of Covid-19 at the St Augustine's Hospital. On Wednesday, the investigative report was released and showed that between March 9 and April 30, there were 119 people – among them 39 patients and 80 staff members – who had confirmed cases identified at the hospital. Fifteen of the 39 patients died.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease at the Netcare St. Augustine’s Hospital in Durban, that led to the infection of at least 135 patients and staff in the hospital complex and people in a nursing home, was caused by a single patient admitted to the facility’s emergency department early in March, a new report has found. The virus spread so fast in the hospital that infections caused by the outbreak in the hospital constituted almost 14% of Covid-19 cases in KwaZulu-Natal by the end of April.
KRISP SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Early transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in South Africa: An epidemiological and phylogenetic report.
Giandhari J, Pillay S, Wilkinson E, Tegally H, Sinayskiy I, Schuld M, Lourenço J, Chimukangara B, Lessells R, Moosa Y, Gazy I, Fish M, Singh L, Khanyile KS, Fonseca V, Giovanetti M, Alcantara LCJ, Petruccione F, de Oliveira T, medRxiv pre-print (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.29.20116376:.
Protocol: Leveraging a demographic and health surveillance system for Covid-19 Surveillance in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Siedner MJ, Harling G, Derache A, Smit T, Khoza T, Gunda R, Mngomezulu T, Gareta D, Majozi N, Ehlers E, Dreyer J, Nxumalo S, Dayi N, Ording-Jesperson G, Ngwenya N, Wong E, Iwuji C, Shahmanesh M, Seeley J, de Oliveira T, Ndung'u T, Hanekom W, Herbst K, Wellcome Open Research (2020), 5:109:.
The ongoing COVID-19 epidemic in Minas Gerais, Brazil: insights from epidemiological data and SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing.
Xavier J, Giovanetti M, Adelino T, Fonseca V, da Costa AVB, Ribeiro AA, Felicio KN, Duarte CG, Silva MVF, Salgado A, Lima MT, de Jesus D, Fabri A, Zoboli CFS, Santos TGS, Iani F,de Filippis AMB, de Siqueira AMNT, de Abreu AL, de Azevedo V, Ramalho DBR, de Albuquerque CFC, de Oliveira T, Holmes EC, Lourenco J, Alcantara CLJ, Oliveira MAA, medRxiv pre-print (2020), :.
Pervasive and non-random recombination in near full-length HIV genomes from Uganda.
Grant HE, Hodcroft EB, Ssemwanga D, Kitayimbwa JM, Yebra G, Gomez LRE, Frampton D, Gall A, Kellam P, de Oliveira T, Bbosa N, Nsubuga RN, Kibengo F, Kwan TH, Lycett S, Kao R, Robertson DL, Ratmann O, Fraser C, Pillay D, Kaleebu P, Leigh-Brown AJ, Virus Evolution (2020), veaa004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veaa004:.
Sampling bias and incorrect rooting make phylogenetic network tracing of SARS-COV-2 infections unreliable.
Mavian C, Pond SK, Marini S, Magalis BR, Vandamme A-M, Dellicour S, Scarpino SV, Houldcroft C, Villabona-Arenas J, Paisie TK, Trovão NS, Boucher C, Zhang Y, Scheuermann RH, Gascuel O, Lam TTY, Suchard MA, Abecasis A, Wilkinson E, de Oliveira T, Bento AI, Schmidt HA, Martin D, Hadfield J, Faria N, Grubaugh ND, Neher RA, Baele G, Lemey P, Stadler T, Albert J, Crandall KA, Leitner T, Stamatakis A, Prosperi M, Salemi M, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (2020), doi:10.1073/pnas.2007295117:.
Priorities among HIV-positive individuals for tuberculosis preventive therapies.
Kim HY, Hanrahan CF, Dowdy DW, Martinson NA, Golub JE, Bridges JFP, Int J Tuberc Lung Dis (2020), 24(4):396-402. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.18.0740:.
Naturally Occurring Oxazole-Containing Peptides.
Mhlongo JT, Brasil E, de la Torre BG, Albericio F, Mar Drugs (2020), 18(4). pii: E203. doi: 10.3390/md18040203:.
KRISP VIDEOS
COVID-19 Pandemic | "Coronavirus outbreak at St Augustine Hospital originated from a single source"
By: Richard Lessells
KRISP BLOGS
KRISP BIOINFORMATICS TOOLS
Genome Detective Coronavirus Typing Too;
Genome Detective Coronavirus Typing Tool for rapid identification and characterization of novel coronavirus genomes
Genome Detective Dengue Virus Typing Tool
This is a beta version of our Dengue Virus Typing tool. For the mean time, this tool should be used for evaluation only. Please send feedback to Tulio de Oliveira.
Genome Detective Zika Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Zika typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
Genome Detective Chikungunya Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Chikungunya typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
Genome Detective Yellow Fever Virus Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Yellow Fever typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
This is the first version of our Arbovirus typing tool for Chikungunya, Dengue, Yellow Fever and Zika
REGA HIV Subtyping Tool V3 - Belgium Mirror
Phylogenetic tool to identify the HIV-1 subtypes and recombinants. Query sequences are analysed for recombination using bootscanning methods. The version 3 contains new CRFs (CRF01_AE to CRF47_BF).
MORE TOOLS
KRISP has been created by the coordinated effort of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the South African Medical Research Countil (SAMRC).
Location: K-RITH Tower Building
Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN
719 Umbilo Road, Durban, South Africa.
Director: Prof. Tulio de Oliveira