RFLP patterns and risk factors for recent tuberculosis transmission among hospitalized tuberculosis patients in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Fandinho, F.C.O.; Kritski, A.L.; Hofer, C.; Conde, H.; Ferreira, R.M.C.; Saad, M.H.F.; Silva, M.G.; Riley, L.W.; Fonseca, L.S.

« Previous Next »Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume 94, Issue 3 , Pages 271-275, May 2000

RFLP patterns and risk factors for recent tuberculosis transmission among hospitalized tuberculosis patients in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

F.C.O. Fandinho
- Laboratório de Tecnologia Recombinante, Instituto de Tecnologia em Imunobiológicos, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
A.L. Kritski
- Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
C. Hofer
- Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
H. Conde Jr
- Instituto Estadual de Doenças do Tórax Art Parreiras, Niterói, RJ, Brazil
R.M.C. Ferreira
- Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
M.H.F. Saad
- Laboratório de Hanseníase, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
M.G. Silva
- Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
L.W. Riley
- School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
L.S. Fonseca
- Address for correspondence: Dr Leila S. Fonseca, Instituto de Microbiologia, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Bloco I, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21.941-590, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil; fax +55 21 5608344.
- Instituto de Microbiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Received 25 August 1999; received in revised form 13 January 2000; accepted 14 January 2000.

Abstract

Isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from 120 tuberculosis patients seen in the 12 months ending September 1994 at 2 tertiary-care centres in Rio de Janeiro were characterized by IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Ninety-seven patients (81%) had isolates with unique RFLP patterns, while 23 patients (19%) had isolates that belonged to 11 different RFLP cluster patterns. The strains from the latter patients were distributed among 1 group of 3 patients and 10 groups of 2 patients each. The cluster-pattern strains were not associated with gender, age, HIV infection, type of residence, living in shelter, homelessness or previous history of tuberculosis. However, clustering was strongly associated with multidrug resistance (P = 0.006). These data suggest that recent exogenous transmission may be important for the development of new cases of multidrug-resistant disease in patients attending tertiary-care centres in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Keywords: tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, RFLP fingerprints, risk factors, inpatients, multidrug resistance, Brazil

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