RESUMEN
Background: The Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme is a passive surveillance system that has monitored antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Canada since the 1980s. This article summarizes the demographics, antimicrobial resistances and NG-MAST (N. gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing) for cultures collected in 2020. Methods: The National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg received resistant N. gonorrhoeae cultures from provincial and territorial public health laboratories. Agar dilution was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations to ten antimicrobials for all cultures received at NML, according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. The NG-MAST typing was also determined for each culture. Results: A total of 3,130 N. gonorrhoeae cases were cultured across Canada in 2020; a 36% decrease from 2019 (n=4,859). The level of decreased susceptibility to cefixime increased significantly between 2016 and 2020 to 2.8% (p=0.0054). Decreased susceptibility to ceftriaxone declined significantly between 2016 (1.8%) and 2020 to 0.9% (p=0.001), and there was no significant change with azithromycin between 2016 (7.2%) and 2020 (6.1%). The proportion of cultures with an azithromycin minimum inhibitory concentrations of ≥1 mg/L increased significantly from 11.6% in 2016 to 15.3% in 2020 (p=0.0017). The most common NG-MAST type in Canada for 2020 was sequence type (ST)-11461, while ST-12302 was most commonly associated with azithromycin resistance and ST-16639 with cephalosporin decreased susceptibility. Conclusion: Antimicrobial resistance in N. gonorrhoeae remains an important public health concern and continued surveillance is imperative to monitor trends to ensure the recommended therapies will be the most effective.
RESUMEN
We summarised available hepatitis C virus (HCV) surveillance data for 2012-14 from Arctic/sub-Arctic countries/regions. We sent a HCV data collection template by email to public health authorities in all jurisdictions. Population statistics obtained from census sources for each country were used to estimate rates of reported acute and chronic/undifferentiated HCV cases. Seven countries with Arctic regions (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and the United States, represented by the state of Alaska), including three Canadian territories and one province, as well as 11 Russian subnational Arctic regions, completed the data collection template. Data on acute HCV infection during 2014 was available from three Arctic countries and all Russian Arctic regions (rate range 0/100,000 population in Greenland, as well as Nenets and Chukotka Automous Okrugs (Russian subnational Arctic regions) to 3.7/100,000 in the Russian Republic of Komi). The rate of people with chronic/undifferentiated HCV infection in 2014 ranged from 0/100,000 in Greenland to 171.2/100,000 in Alaska. In most countries/regions, the majority of HCV-infected people were male and aged 19-64 years. Differences in surveillance methods preclude direct comparisons of HCV surveillance data between Arctic countries/regions. Our data can inform future efforts to develop standardised approaches to HCV surveillance in the Arctic countries/regions by identifying similarities/differences between the surveillance data collected.
