Little is known about transmission and drug resistance of tuberculosis (TB) in Bauru, State of S o Paulo. The objective of this study was to evaluate risk factors for transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in this area. Strains were collected from patients attended at ambulatory services in the region and susceptibility towards the main first line antibiotics was determined and fing...

A preliminary investigation of the genetic biodiversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains in Cameroon, a country with a high prevalence of tuberculosis, described a group of closely related M. tuberculosis strains (the Cameroon family) currently responsible for more than 40% of smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases. Here, we used various molecular methods to study the genetic ...

Rapid recognition of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a desirable goal for treatment of patients and protection of health care workers. DNA fingerprints produced with the insertion sequence IS6110 generate restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns that reliably identify M. tuberculosis complex strains. This report describes a rapid technique for RFLP t...

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a major public health problem because treatment is complicated, cure rates are well below those for drug susceptible tuberculosis (TB), and patients may remain infectious for months or years despite receiving the best available therapy. To gain a better understanding of MDR-TB, we characterized isolates recovered from 69 patients with MDR-TB, by use ...

Two insertion sequences, IS6110 and IS1081, specific to the tuberculosis complex mycobacteria and a highly reiterated DNA element (pTBN12) cloned from Mycobacterium tuberculosis were systematically used to identify restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) types among bovine isolates of Mycobacterium bovis in Northern Ireland. In a sample of 109 isolates, probes IS6110, IS1081, and pTBN12...

The current "gold standard" in molecular epidemiological studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is IS6110 RFLP based on IS6110 polymorphism. However PCR-based methods are becoming increasingly important. Recently, fast ligation-mediated PCR (FLiP), based on IS6110 polymorphism was proposed. In this study, the discriminatory power of FLIP, spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR typing, in differentiation of...

This study reports on the transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis of the same IS6110 RFLP type between two acquaintances with open pulmonary tuberculosis and a five-year-old Doberman bitch. No clinical signs, gross lesions at necropsy or histopathological lesions were observed in the infected lungs and gastrointestinal tract of the dog, although M. tuberculosis was directly detected by IS611...