title: Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Lisbon.
abstract: We conducted a molecular epidemiology study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from patients in Lisbon hospitals. We used restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) to detect Lisbon family strains and to determine the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in Lisbon, through identification of the most important risk factors of tuberculosis transmission analysis, with the insertion sequence IS6110 as a probe to fingerprint isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 64.8% of the 290 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were grouped in clusters. This figure was 60.7% if we excluded strains with five or fewer IS6110 copies. Multidrug-resistance was observed in 4.1% of the strains and they were all in clusters. Forty-five (18.2%) strains were included in the Lisbon family. Considering the relatively high percentage of strains in cluster detected in this study, we believe that active transmission is still taking place in Lisbon. Moreover, clusters of Lisbon strains represent the predominant strains circulating in Lisbon and are still related to drug resistance although presenting a lower percentage than that observed in previous studies.
authors: Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Centro de Patogénese Molecular, Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal.
authors: Isabel
authors: I
authors: Portugal
authors: Luís
authors: L
authors: Barreiro
authors: Tiago
authors: T
authors: Vultos
authors: Rita
authors: R
authors: Macedo
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Furtado
authors: António
authors: A
authors: Fonseca Antunes
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Brum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D011174:Portugal / Q000453:epidemiology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology*