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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 1998, p. 305-308, Vol. 36, No. 1
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Results from 5 Years of Nationwide DNA
Fingerprinting of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex
Isolates in a Country with a Low Incidence of M. tuberculosis Infection
Jeanett
Bauer,1,*
Zhenhua
Yang,1
Sigrid
Poulsen,2 and
Åse B.
Andersen1
Departments of
Mycobacteriology1 and
Epidemiology,2 Statens Serum Institut,
2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark
Received 20 June 1997/Returned for modification 29 July
1997/Accepted 21 October 1997
 |
ABSTRACT |
Results from DNA fingerprint analyses of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis complex isolates from tuberculosis (TB) patients
diagnosed during 5 years in Denmark are presented. The lack of success
in eradicating TB in this low-incidence country may be explained by an
unrecognized high frequency of active TB transmission (57%) among
native Danes. Only two strains of M. tuberculosis are
responsible for 40% of all clustered cases of TB among Danes.
 |
TEXT |
In recent years, DNA fingerprinting
of Mycobacterium tuberculosis based on restriction fragment
length polymorphism (RFLP) using IS6110 as a probe has been
performed on isolates from various parts of the world (1, 7, 12,
19-21). The stability and reproducibility of the technique as
well as its usefulness in epidemiological studies has been convincingly
demonstrated (8, 16, 17), and new insight into the nature of
tuberculosis (TB) transmission has been obtained. Furthermore, RFLP has
become an indispensable tool for quality assurance of the processing
and culturing of patient samples, since it offers an opportunity to verify suspected cases of cross-contamination (2, 13).
Denmark is a small Scandinavian country with 5 million inhabitants. The
incidence of TB in Denmark declined until the middle of 1980s. Since
then an increase has been observed, mainly due to immigration. The low
but steady occurrence of about 200 cases per year in Danes encompasses
a falling incidence in the older adult population and a rising
incidence in the younger and middle-aged adult population (10,
11).
The bacterial diagnostics of TB in Denmark, including Greenland, is
centralized at the Department of Mycobacteriology at the Statens Serum
Institut in Copenhagen. Eighty-three to 91% of all notified TB cases
in Denmark are bacteriologically verified (10, 11). In a
continuation of a previous study (19, 20), all new isolates
of M. tuberculosis complex were analyzed by RFLP by using
the standardized procedure described previously (15), and
the genotypes were filed together with epidemiological data. The
database now comprises information regarding 1,700 TB patients, representing approximately 92% of all culture-positive TB patients from January 1992 to December 1995 and 50% of culture-positive patients from 1996 on. In this paper we present the results of this
nationwide DNA fingerprinting of M. tuberculosis complex isolates, with special reference to the molecular epidemiology of TB in
the Danish population.
The nationalities of the patients are shown in Table
1. Eleven patients were infected with
multidrug-resistant strains. None of these strains were identical,
indicating that the current policy of centralized hospitalisation and
treatment of patients infected with multidrug-resistant strains in fact
prevents secondary transmission of these strains.
One hundred fifty-one of 1,700 patients (9%) were infected with
M. tuberculosis complex strains carrying fewer than 5 copies of IS6110 (low-copy-number strains). These patients were
excluded from further calculations, since other studies have shown that low-copy-number strains, in spite of identical IS6110
patterns, very often exhibit polymorphic patterns when other genotyping systems are used (3, 4). A majority of the low-copy-number strains were isolated from immigrants, while 41 were cultured from
Danes. No low-copy-number strains were cultured from patients from
Greenland. Among the Danish low-copy-number strains, 29 of 41 (70%)
were identified as Mycobacterium bovis or
Mycobacterium bovis BCG. M. bovis and M. bovis BCG were identified on the basis of drug susceptibility
analyses, including susceptibility to cycloserine and
thiophene-2-carboxylic acid hydrazide. A significant number of
low-copy-number strains would limit the value of IS6110 DNA fingerprinting (18), but this is not a major problem in
Denmark.
Among the 1,549 patients infected with high-copy-number strains, 49%
were infected with M. tuberculosis strains which were part
of a cluster (defined as at least two patients with strains exhibiting
identical RFLP patterns) while 51% were infected with unique strains.
Among immigrants, clustered strains comprised only 30%. Immigrants
arrive from different parts of the world, where different RFLP patterns
are endemic. TB infections among immigrants in Denmark are most often
the result of reactivation of strains with which they were infected in
their countries of origin. In Greenland, the cluster frequency is
extremely high, 79%. This is in accordance with the results obtained
in previous studies (19). The explanation can probably be
found both in the very high TB incidence in Greenland (at least 15 to
20 times as high as that in Denmark and increasing) and in the fact
that Greenland is a geographically isolated country where exchange of
TB strains from other areas has been and still is limited.
In the Danish population, 57% of the patients were infected with an
M. tuberculosis strain which was part of a cluster. The frequency of M. tuberculosis strain clustering was
calculated for different age groups, by gender, and by residence in or
outside central Copenhagen. As shown in Fig.
1, cluster frequency in age groups up to
50 to 60 years is even higher than 57%. It is higher for males than
for females and higher for patients living in central Copenhagen than
for patients living outside central Copenhagen. Figure
2 shows the number of patients in the
database and the incidence of notified cases. The distribution of
clustered Danish TB patients on small clusters (2 to 3 patients with
identical strains), medium-size clusters (4 to 18 patients with
identical strains), and the two largest clusters was calculated. As
shown in Table 2, approximately 40% of
all clustered Danish TB patients and 55% of the clustered Danish TB
patients living in central Copenhagen belonged to one of two large
clusters designated cluster 1 and cluster 2. The geographical
distribution of these clusters is shown in Fig.
3. These strains are mainly found in
Copenhagen, but microepidemics in other cities have been observed.
Cluster 1, which carries 13 copies of IS6110, consists of
110 patients: 72 Danes, 33 patients from Greenland (16 living in
Denmark), and 5 immigrants (2 from Finland, 1 from Yugoslavia, 1 from
Germany, and 1 from Morocco). Cluster 2, which carries 11 copies of
IS6110, consists of 90 patients: 88 Danes and 2 immigrants
(1 from Sierra Leone and 1 from Syria). Cluster 1 was previously
reported to be related to a chain of TB transmission from Greenland to
Denmark (19). The transmission was by then thought to be
related to a certain area of Copenhagen with known social and health
problems. Transmission of this strain is still believed to be
associated with this specific area of Copenhagen. Results from a recent
study of patients coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus and TB in Denmark indicate that this strain is also related to drug addict circles (5). The presence of immigrants in these two
clusters is likely to be due to transmission of TB from Danes to
immigrants, since both clusters were observed among a large number of
Danish TB patients before any patients of foreign origin were observed. Transmission from immigrants to Danes is not a problem of concern according to our data, since only a few cases of clustering between Danes and immigrants have been found.

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FIG. 1.
Frequency of case clustering among Danes, grouped by age
and gender (A) or by age and residence (B), from 1992 to 1996.
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TABLE 2.
Distribution on cluster size of all clustered Danish TB
patients and of clustered Danish TB patients living in
central Copenhagen
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FIG. 3.
Map of Denmark showing the geographical distribution of
patients infected with M. tuberculosis strains belonging to
the two most frequent clusters. Triangles, cluster 1; circles, cluster
2. Numbers represent cases.
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|
Neither of the two patterns of clusters 1 and 2 is found in the
international database now comprising 6,000 isolates (14). However, in a pilot study in which 30 M. tuberculosis
strains isolated from TB patients living in the southern part of Sweden were analyzed, two strains were found to be identical to the strains in
cluster 1. Two strains exhibited genotypes very similar to that of
cluster 2, indicating that these strains may have expanded predominantly in the northern hemisphere.
It was previously predicted (9) that TB would be eradicated
among Danes by the middle of the next century. Good case finding, effective treatment, and contact tracing would keep the rate of recently infected patients as low as 33% of reactivated cases. This
study is in agreement with the general opinion that TB in a
low-incidence country such as Denmark is mostly due to reactivation. However, as described in previous studies (20), a high
proportion of TB cases appear to be due to recent infection. Especially
the two very large clusters described above indicate that active
transmission of TB, probably in certain marginalized subpopulations, is
still a considerable problem despite a good national TB program.
Ongoing studies with the purpose of obtaining detailed information on patients in the large clusters from medical records and interviews will
hopefully reveal topics of interest for further contact tracing.
It is possible that the very frequent occurrence of the two strains of
clusters 1 and 2 could be explained by higher virulence of these
strains favoring transmission. This hypothesis is at the moment being
investigated by virulence testing of the strains by a recently
described method (6).
The Danish RFLP database has provided new knowledge of TB epidemiology
in Denmark and has raised questions concerning the traditional concept
of TB transmission. We are currently trying to utilize the results of
the RFLP analyses in clinical work by making reports to the responsible
physicians. Despite careful contract tracing, unrecognized TB
transmission is obviously going on. Hopefully, molecular
epidemiological analyses such as that presented here will help reveal
how efforts to eradicate TB in Denmark should be intensified.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Mycobacteriology, Statens Serum Institut, Artillerivej 5, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark. Phone: 45 3268 3705. Fax: 45 3268 3871. E-mail:
jba{at}ssi.dk.
 |
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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 1998, p. 305-308, Vol. 36, No. 1
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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