Epidemiology and molecular typing of an outbreak of tuberculosis in a hostel for homeless men

A M Kearns¹, A Barrett¹, C Marshall¹, R Freeman¹, J G Magee¹, S J Bourke² and M Steward³

¹ Molecular Biology Unit and Regional Centre for Mycobacteriology, Public Health Laboratory, General Hospital, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE, UK
² Department of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP, UK
³ Novocastra Laboratories Ltd, Benton Lane, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 8EW, UK

Correspondence to:
Professor Freeman

Aim—To investigate a possible outbreak of tuberculosis in a hostel for homeless men using IS6110 profiling, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based fingerprinting technique.

Methods—Eight cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed in residents of the hostel over a period of 28 months. To provide epidemiological data, a heminested inverse PCR (HIP) assay targeting the insertion sequence IS6110 together with its upstream flanking region was used to fingerprint the eight isolates of M tuberculosis under investigation.

Results—The HIP technique gave IS6110 profiles which showed that while three isolates were clearly distinct, the remaining five strains were indistinguishable, suggesting the latter were representatives of a single outbreak strain.

Conclusions—The HIP assay proved discriminatory and facilitated repeated testing for the direct comparison of strains as more patients presented over the protracted course of this outbreak.

Key Words: tuberculosis • epidemiology • molecular typing • IS6110

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Bei Wang, , Mortazavi, R., Haghighat, F. (2009). Evaluation of Modeling and Measurement Techniques of Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Effectiveness -- Towards the Design of Immune Buildings. Indoor and Built Environment 18: 101-112 [Abstract]  
• Kremer, K., Arnold, C., Cataldi, A., Gutierrez, M. C., Haas, W. H., Panaiotov, S., Skuce, R. A., Supply, P., van der Zanden, A. G. M., van Soolingen, D. (2005). Discriminatory Power and Reproducibility of Novel DNA Typing Methods for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Strains. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 5628-5638 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• (2005). American Thoracic Society/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Infectious Diseases Society of America: Controlling Tuberculosis in the United States. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 172: 1169-1227 [Full Text]