Transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the UK: a crosssectional molecular and epidemiological study of clustering and contact tracing

Abstract

Globally, 455,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant
TB (MDR)—defined as Mycobacterium tuberculosis
resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin—
occurred in 2012, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO).1 There isn't much proof that
multidrug-resistant TB patients are more contagious
than completely sensitive tuberculosis patients, but
the longer time these patients are infectious means
more chances for transmission. It is much more
important to combat the spread of MDR TB strains
since infected individuals have a bad prognosis.
Future TB control tactics may be better informed by
gaining a better understanding of the transmission
dynamics of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis.From
28 instances in 2000 to 81 cases in 2012 (an increase
from 0% to 1.6%) of all cases, the number of multidrug-resistant TB cases in the UK has risen
significantly over the last decade.3 In the UK, most
multidrug-resistant TB patients were born in subSaharan Africa or the Indian subcontinent. quickly
identify individuals infected with the same strain of
Mycobacterium TB, which might be a consequence of
a recent transmission (within the last two years), is
mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit-variablenumber tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) strain typing.
Using 15 loci MIRU-VNTR strain type, an earlier
study4 estimated that 1% of MDR
To find possible epidemiological ties between cases,
we used a cluster research questionnaire and merged
it with epidemiological data obtained regularly in the
monitoring system. We also used 24 loci MIRUVNTR strain typing. Our goals were to(1) determine
the percentage of multi-drug-resistant TB cases in the
United Kingdom that were transmitted and(2) identify
risk variables linked with transmission. We evaluated
the efficacy of traditional contact tracing in
identifying actual transmission events when regular
strain typing is not available by using data gained
from contact investigations to find more secondary.