Steve Ritchie

Genetic structure of Staphylococcus populations in New Zealand

I graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Auckland in 1996 and completed my PhD in 2010. I am currently an Allan Wilson Centre Post Doctoral Research Fellow, but also keep my hand in as an Infectious Disease physician at Auckland City Hospital where I see a large number of people with invasive disease caused by Staphylococcus aureus. My Post Doc work aims to investigate why some people are susceptible to infection with this organism, which causes asymptomatic colonisation of approximately 25% of the population.

At the NZIAS I am using multi locus sequencing in order to elucidate the genetic structure of S. aureus populations from humans in Auckland and the South Pacific. To this end I have acquired an extensive collection of isolates from patients and community and am currently reeling under the weight of sequence data. I hope to gain further insight into disease caused by this organism by examining the epidemiology of staphylococcal infection in the light of serological and bacterial genetic data.

Publications from previous work

Ritchie S.R., Orr D.W. & Black P.N. (2008). Severe jaundice following treatment with ezetimibe. European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. In press.

Muttaiyah S., Ritchie S., Upton A. & Roberts S. (2008). Clinical parameters do not predict infection in patients with external ventricular drains: a retrospective observational study of daily cerebrospinal fluid analysis. Journal of Medical Microbiology. 57, 207-9.

Ritchie S.R., Harrison A.C., Vaughan R.H., Calder L. & Morris A.J. (2007). New recommendations for the duration of respiratory isolation based on the time to detect M. tuberculosis in liquid culture. European Respiratory Journal  30, 10.1183/09031936.00131406.

Ritchie S., Rupali P., Roberts S., & Thomas M. (2007). Flucloxacillin treatment of Staphylococcus aureus meningitis. European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases 26, 501-504

Ritchie S., Palmer S. & Ellis-Pegler R. (2007). High-risk febrile neutropenia in Auckland 2003-2004: the influence of the microbiology laboratory on patient treatment. International Medical Journal 36, 26-31.

Ritchie, S., Jowitt, D. & Roberts, S. (2007). The Auckland City Hospital Device Point Prevalence Survey 2005: utilisation and infectious complications of intravascular and urinary devices. Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association 120, No 1260. http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/120-1260/2683/content.pdf

Ritchie, S., Scanlon, N., Lewis, M. & Black, P. (2004). Use of a preprinted sticker to improve the prescribing of prophylactic antibiotics for hip fracture surgery. Qual Saf Health Care 13, 384-387

Ritchie, S., Cramond, V. & Thomas, M. (2004). Letter: Don’t forget about HIV. New Zealand Medical Journal 117, 1196