Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Dec 1997, 3015-3020, Vol 35, No. 12
S Niemann, S Rusch-Gerdes and E Richter
The epidemiological relatedness of drug-resistant Mycobacterium
tuberculosis strains isolated in Germany in 1995 was evaluated by the
standardized IS6110 fingerprinting method. Altogether, 196 M. tuberculosis
isolates from 167 patients were analyzed. A large degree of IS6110
polymorphism was found, ranging from 1 to 20 copies. Multiple isolates from
one patient generally remained stable over a period of up to 1 year.
However, one strain showed an additional fragment 7 months after the first
isolate was obtained. Isolates from 55 patients (33%) showed identical
fingerprint patterns or fingerprint patterns that differed only in one
band, and thus they were clustered in 22 fingerprint groups. Specific
transmission links could be established between members of four groups,
e.g., transmission by family contacts. In one case, transmission of a
multidrug-resistant strain to a patient initially infected with a
drug-susceptible strain could be shown. Besides these fingerprint groups,
30 of the 167 isolates (approximately 18%) could be grouped in two
fingerprint clusters with a similarity of at least 78%. Approximately 60%
of the patients of these two clusters were known to be immigrants from the
former Soviet Union, and one patient is still living in Belarus. In
conclusion, our results indicate that (i) transmission of drug-resistant
strains contributes substantially to the emergence of drug-resistant
tuberculosis in Germany and (ii) drug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains
were presumably carried over from the former Soviet Union to Germany by
immigrants.
Copyright © 1997 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
IS6110 fingerprinting of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in Germany during 1995 [In Process Citation]
Forschungszentrum Borstel, National Reference Center for Mycobacteria, Germany.
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