Winkie Fong

Introduction Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by Bordetella pertussis, which has been associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, especially in young children.1 Despite well resourced vaccination programmes in many countries, B pertussis continues to circulate globally, leading to epidemics every 3–5 years.2 Following several years of low pertussis incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries are now experiencing a...

Abstract Shiga Toxin (Stx) producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a subset of pathogenic E. coli that can produce two types of Stx, Stx1 and Stx2, which can be further subtyped into four and 15 subtypes respectively. Not all subtypes, however, are equal in virulence potential, and the risk of severe disease including haemolytic uraemic syndrome has been linked to certain Stx2 subtypes e.g. Stx2a, Stx2d, highlighting the importance to survey stx subtypes.

Abstract Aims: To explore viral evolution during in vitro neutralisation using next generation sequencing, and to determine whether sera from individuals immunised with two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine (BNT162b2) are as effective at neutralising the SARSCoV2 variant of concern (VOC) Delta (B 1.617.2) compared to the earlier lineages Beta (B.1.351) and wildtype (lineage A.2.2) virus.