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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 08 1995, 2077-2081, Vol 33, No. 8
ZH Yang, PE de Haas, CH Wachmann, D van Soolingen, JD van Embden and AB Andersen
The incidence of tuberculosis (TB) is increasing all over the world,
including in countries with a high standard of living and good social
security. Denmark represents such a region. Furthermore, it is a small
country (5 million inhabitants) with a long tradition in TB control,
including a centralization of the bacteriological diagnostic facility. The
present study was intended to analyze the transmission of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis in a country in which TB has low endemicity by a combination
of conventional epidemiological approaches and DNA fingerprinting
techniques, whereby individual bacterial strains can be traced. M.
tuberculosis isolates from 92% of all new cases of bacteriologically
verified TB in Denmark during 1992 were subjected to IS6110 DNA
fingerprinting to visualize the DNA restriction fragment length
polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of the isolated strains. The data obtained
from the RFLP analyses were interpreted by using demographic data, such as
age, sex, ethnicity, and residence, for the patients. The risk factors
among the patients for being part of an active chain of transmission, as
opposed to demonstrating reactivation of a previously acquired latent
infection, were estimated by statistical analyses. The magnitude of TB
transmission in 1992 in Denmark was determined, and transmitted infections
were shown to comprise at least one quarter of the total number of cases.
Almost half of the TB cases involved patients of foreign origin. However,
most of these isolates showed unique DNA fingerprint patterns and were
rarely part of an active chain of transmission. The major chains of recent
transmission were localized to distinct geographical regions in the
country.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Copyright © 1995 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in Denmark in 1992
Mycobacteria Department, Statens Seruminstitut, Copenhagen, Denmark.
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