Call for papers for a special issue on molecular epidemiology of human pathogens

摘要

As exemplified in the 2011 outbreak of the Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) 0104:H4 strain in Germany, advanced sequencing technologies are being introduced for application in microbiological investigations supporting surveillance and outbreak investigations. In the STEC outbreak, the traditional microbiological methods were used to characterise the outbreak strain for epidemiological investigations, but for the first time, parallel application of advanced technologies enabled the whole genome sequence of multiple isolates of the outbreak strain to be deter- mined just a few days after the outbreak had been detected. While such scientific and technological advances have great potential to increase the resolution and accuracy of microbiological investigations and deepen our understand- ing of human pathogens and the diseases they cause, various operational issues need to be resolved in order for such advanced techniques to be incorporated into public health practice.