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Volume 24, Number 2—February 2018
CME ACTIVITY - Research

Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology of Staphylococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome in the United Kingdom

Hema Sharma, Debra Smith, Claire E. Turner1, Laurence Game, Bruno Pichon, Russell Hope, Robert Hill, Angela Kearns2, and Shiranee Sriskandan2Comments to Author 
Author affiliations: Imperial College, London, UK (H. Sharma, D. Smith, C.E. Turner, S. Sriskandan); MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, London (L. Game); Public Health England, London (B. Pichon, R. Hope, R. Hill, A. Kearns)

Main Article

Table 2

Frequency of major superantigen genes among Staphylococcus aureus isolates associated with menstrual and nonmenstrual toxic shock syndrome, United Kingdom, 2008–2012*

Superantigen gene† No. (%) cases
p value§
Total, n = 180‡ Menstrual, n = 70 Nonmenstrual, n = 107
sea and tst combined 54 (30.0) 27 (38.6) 25 (23.4) 0.04
tst alone 37 (20.5) 23 (32.9) 13 (12.1) 0.001
sea alone 12 (6.7) 4 (5.7) 8 (7.5) 0.77
seb alone 11 (6.1) 3 (4.3) 8 (7.5) 0.53
sec alone 14 (7.8) 1 (1.4) 13 (12.1) 0.01
sed alone 4 (2.2) 0 4 (3.7) 0.15

*Boldface indicates a statistically significant result.
†Does not include 48 TSS isolates that did not have sea, seb, sec, sed, or tst in isolation.
‡Three additional TSS isolates could not be classified as menstrual or nonmenstrual due to lack of clinical data
§By Fisher exact test comparing the percentage carriage of a given superantigen gene among menstrual and nonmenstrual isolates.

Main Article

1Current affiliation: University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.

2These authors contributed equally to this article.

Page created: January 11, 2018
Page updated: January 11, 2018
Page reviewed: January 11, 2018
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