Multispecies Outbreak of Nocardia Infections in Heart Transplant Recipients and Association with Climate Conditions, Australia

Overview

Journal Emerg Infect Dis

Specialty Infectious Diseases

Date 2022 Oct 26

PMID 36287030

Authors

Jonathan Li

Cindy Lau

Naomi Anderson

Fay Burrows

Feras Mirdad

Lilibeth Carlos

Andrew J Pitman

Kavitha Muthiah

David R Darley

David Andresen

Peter Macdonald

Deborah Marriott

Nila J Dharan

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A multispecies outbreak of Nocardia occurred among heart transplant recipients (HTR), but not lung transplant recipients (LTR), in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, during 2018-2019. We performed a retrospective review of 23 HTR and LTR who had Nocardia spp. infections during June 2015-March 2021, compared risk factors for Nocardia infection, and evaluated climate conditions before, during, and after the period of the 2018-2019 outbreak. Compared with LTR, HTR had a shorter median time from transplant to Nocardia diagnosis, higher prevalence of diabetes, greater use of induction immunosuppression with basiliximab, and increased rates of cellular rejection before Nocardia diagnosis. During the outbreak, Sydney experienced the lowest monthly precipitation and driest surface levels compared with time periods directly before and after the outbreak. Increased immunosuppression of HTR compared with LTR, coupled with extreme weather conditions during 2018-2019, may explain this outbreak of Nocardia infections in HTR.

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