Identification of a W Variant Outbreak of Mycobacterium tuberculosis via Population-Based Molecular Epidemiology (original) (raw)

Spread of Strain W, a Highly Drug‐Resistant Strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis , Across the United States

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 1999

Strain W, a highly drug-resistant strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was responsible for large nosocomial outbreaks in New York in the early 1990s. To describe the spread of strain W outside New York, we reviewed data from epidemiologic investigations, national tuberculosis surveillance, regional DNA fingerprint laboratories, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Mycobacteriology Laboratory to identify potential cases of tuberculosis due to strain W. From January 1992 through February 1997, 23 cases were diagnosed in nine states and Puerto Rico; 8 were exposed to strain W in New York before their diagnosis; 4 of the 23 transmitted disease to 10 others. Eighty-six contacts of the 23 cases are presumed to be infected with strain W; 11 completed alternative preventive therapy. Strain W tuberculosis cases will occur throughout the United States as persons infected in New York move elsewhere. To help track and contain this strain, health departments should notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of cases of tuberculosis resistant to isoniazid, rifampin, streptomycin, and kanamycin.

The Changing Face of the Epidemiology of Tuberculosis due to Molecular Strain Typing: A Review

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 1997

About one third of the world population is infected with tubercle bacilli, causing eight million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) and three million deaths each year. After years of lack of interest in the disease, World Health Organization recently declared TB a global emergency and it is clear that there is need for more efficient national TB programs and newly defined research priorities. A more complete epidemiology of tuberculosis will lead to a better identification of index cases and to a more efficient treatment of the disease. Recently, new molecular tools became available for the identification of strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis), allowing a better recognition of transmission routes of defined strains. Both a standardized restriction-fragment-length-polymorphism-based methodology for epidemiological studies on a large scale and deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) amplification-based methods that allow rapid detection of outbreaks with multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains, often characterized by high mortality rates, have been developed. This review comments on the existing methods of DNA-based recognition of M. tuberculosis strains and their peculiarities. It also summarizes literature data on the application of molecular fingerprinting for detection of outbreaks of M. tuberculosis, for identification of index cases, for study of interaction between TB and infection with the human immunodeficiency virus, for analysis of the behavior of MDR strains, for a better understanding of risk factors for transmission of TB within communities and for population-based studies of TB transmission within and between countries.

Molecular Epidemiology of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

The United States-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) are part of the US National Tuberculosis (TB) Surveillance System and use laboratory services contracted through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2004, the CDC established the National Tuberculosis Genotyping Service, a system to genotype 1 isolate from each culture-confirmed case of TB. To describe the molecular epidemiology of TB in the region, we examined all Mycobacterium tuberculosis . Over this time period, the USAPI jurisdictions reported 1339 verified TB cases to the National Tuberculosis Surveillance System. Among 419 (31%) reported cultureconfirmed TB cases, 352 (84%) had complete genotype results. Routine TB genotyping allowed, for the first time, an exploration of the molecular epidemiology of TB in the USAPI.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Molecular Epidemiology: An Overview

Journal of Microbiology Research, 2014

Tuberculosis is a disease of grave concern which infects one-third of the global population. The high incidence of tuberculosis is further compounded by the increasing emergence of drug resistant strains including multi-drug resistant (MDR). Global incidence MDR-TB is ~4%. Molecular epidemiological studies, based on the assumption that patients infected with clustered strains are epidemiologically linked, have helped understand the transmission dynamics of disease. It has also helped to investigate the basis of variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strains, differences in transmission, and severity of disease or drug resistance mechanisms from across the globe. This has helped in developing strategies for the treatment and prevention of the disease including MDR.

Expanded Geographical Distribution of the N Family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains within the United States

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2004

The N and W-Beijing families of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are phylogenetically closely related. The ability of the W-Beijing family to rapidly cause widespread disease is well described; however, few outbreaks involving the N family have been reported outside the New York City, N.Y., area. During 2002 to 2003, Seattle, Wash., experienced a rapidly expanding tuberculosis outbreak involving 38 persons in a 23-month period. The outbreak strain, SBRI9, exhibited the genotypic properties of the N family. Its IS 6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism pattern was identical or nearly identical to those of two N family strains that were responsible for clusters of tuberculosis cases, including a large nosocomial outbreak, in New York City and New Jersey from 1989 to 1990. It was also identical to strains involved in late 1990s tuberculosis cases in Michigan, Maryland, and Arkansas. Further monitoring of the N family may show that it shares with the W-Beijing family the propensity to ...

Current trends in molecular epidemiology studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the most harmful human pathogens worldwide, and there are mass efforts for controlling this pathogen. One of the powerful tools to find out and control this pathogen is molecular epidemiology techniques. Currently, wide ranges of techniques are available to type mycobacterium tuberculosis, and choosing the correct technique as a portable and standard method is difficult. IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) remains gold standard method on genotyping to date, but it is labor intensive and inefficient on samples which have fewer than six copy numbers of IS6110. In the recent years, some new methods have been introduced for genotyping of mycobacterium tuberculosis such as mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) and Spoligotyping. The present review tries to introduce new approaches in molecular techniques for epidemiological investigation of tuberculosis and to illustrate advantages and problems associated with them.

Genomic Characterization of an Endemic Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strain: Evolutionary and Epidemiologic Implications

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2004

In a study of 302 Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from the low-incidence Canadian-born population of Quebec, we characterized a large endemic strain family by using genomic deletions. The DS6 Quebec deleted region (11.4 kb) defined a strain family of 143 isolates encompassing two subgroups: one characterized by pyrazinamide (PZA) susceptibility and the other marked by a PZA-monoresistant phenotype. A second deletion (8 bp) in the pncA gene was shared by all 76 isolates with the PZA resistance phenotype, whereas a third DRv0961 deletion (970 bp) defined a further subset of 15 isolates. From their deletion profiles, we derived a most parsimonious evolutionary scenario and compared multiple standard genotyping modalities (using IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism [RFLP], spoligotyping, and mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units [MIRU]) across the deletion-based subgroups. The use of a single genotyping modality yielded an unexpectedly high proportion of clustered isolates for a high IS6110 copy strain (27% by IS6110 RFLP, 61% by MIRU, and 77% by spoligotyping). By combining all three modalities, only 14% were genotypically clustered overall, a result more congruent with the epidemiologic profile of reactivation tuberculosis, as suggested by the older age (mean age, 60 years), rural setting, and low proportion of epidemiologic links. These results provide insight into the evolution of genotypes in endemic strains and the potential for false clustering in molecular epidemiologic studies.

Prospective Use of Molecular Typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Use of Restriction Fragment--Length Polymorphism in a Public Tuberculosis-Control Program

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2002

We performed a prospective, community-based evaluation of molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates as a method for tuberculosis (TB) control. We performed restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of the insertion sequences IS6110 and pTBN12 for isolates recovered from 61 of 62 patients with culture-positive TB in St. Louis during 12 months. Twenty-four (39%) of the 61 patients were infected with an isolate with an RFLP pattern that was shared with у1 other isolate, and 11 (46%) also had epidemiologic links with patients in their cluster of cases. One case each of laboratory cross-contamination and occupational transmission were discovered. The patients in clusters were more likely to be younger, black, United States-born, to have substance abuse problems, and to live in poorer areas. A predictive algorithm for molecular identification of clusters had a sensitivity and a specificity of 75%. This study allowed the TB-control program in St. Louis to be redirected toward the affected subpopulations.

Methodological and Clinical Aspects of the Molecular Epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Other Mycobacteria

Clinical microbiology reviews, 2016

Molecular typing has revolutionized epidemiological studies of infectious diseases, including those of a mycobacterial etiology. With the advent of fingerprinting techniques, many traditional concepts regarding transmission, infectivity, or pathogenicity of mycobacterial bacilli have been revisited, and their conventional interpretations have been challenged. Since the mid-1990s, when the first typing methods were introduced, a plethora of other modalities have been proposed. So-called molecular epidemiology has become an essential subdiscipline of modern mycobacteriology. It serves as a resource for understanding the key issues in the epidemiology of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases. Among these issues are disclosing sources of infection, quantifying recent transmission, identifying transmission links, discerning reinfection from relapse, tracking the geographic distribution and clonal expansion of specific strains, and exploring the genetic mechanisms underlying speci...