Monitoring invasive bacterial diseases in the North American Arctic via the International Circumpolar Surveillance Project.

This paper summarizes the most recent Invasive Bacterial Diseases (IBD) Working Group meeting of the International Circumpolar Surveillance (ICS) project. The ICS is a population-based surveillance network for invasive bacterial diseases that provides a mechanism to determine changes in incidence rates and antimicrobial resistance. The meeting took place in Montreal, Canada on February 12-13, 2014. Data were included from participating Canadian provincial and territorial jurisdictions as well as from the State of Alaska. This report is based on the audio records of the meeting as well as the meeting presentations. The ICS IBD Working Group focuses on invasive diseases caused by: Streptococcus pneumoniae (Sp), Neisseria meningitidis (Nm), Haemophilus influenzae (Hi), Group A Streptococcus (GAS) and Group B Streptococcus (GBS). Data on invasive disease caused by each of these organisms were reviewed through December 2012-2013. Although the incidence of some of these vaccine-preventable invasive diseases has decreased, emergence of H. influenzae serotype a (Hia) in both Alaska and Northern Canada was noted. An interlaboratory quality control (QC) program is ongoing to monitor laboratory proficiencies for serotyping.