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Home / The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 17, Number 8

Strain diversity of mycobacteria isolated from pulmonary tuberculosis patients at Debre Birhan Hospital, Ethiopia

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BACKGROUND: Ethiopia ranks seventh in the list of 22 high tuberculosis (TB) burden countries, with an incidence rate of 379 cases per 100 000 population for TB all forms. However, information on the genomic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ethiopia is limited.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the molecular characteristics of M. tuberculosis strains implicated in pulmonary TB in the study area.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using socio-demographic, clinical and culture data combined with molecular typing analysis. The proportion of TB and M. tuberculosis isolates was not associated with risk factors (P > 0.05). Of 99 sputum samples, 80.8% were culture-positive. Speciation of isolates showed that 88.8% were M. tuberculosis. Further characterisation led to the identification of 27 different spoligotype patterns of M. tuberculosis; the most dominant shared types were SIT149, SIT53 and SIT54. Of the 27 strains, three strains were new and were reported to the SITVIT database. More than two thirds of the strains belonged to the Euro-American lineage.

CONCLUSION: This study shows the presence of several clusters and new strains of M. tuberculosis circulating in pulmonary TB patients in the study area, suggesting recent transmission. Nationwide studies are recommended to map the population structure of M. tuberculosis and set control measures.

Keywords: cluster formation; molecular typing; pulmonary tuberculosis; recent transmission; sputum

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia 2: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 3: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 4: Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Department of Biochemistry, World Health Organization Immunology Research and Training Center, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland 5: Department of Molecular Infection Biology, University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany 6: Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 7: Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Publication date: 01 August 2013

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  • The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD) is for clinical research and epidemiological studies on lung health, including articles on TB, TB-HIV and respiratory diseases such as COVID-19, asthma, COPD, child lung health and the hazards of tobacco and air pollution. Individuals and institutes can subscribe to the IJTLD online or in print – simply email us at [email protected] for details.

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