title: Molecular epidemiology of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Eastern Taiwan.
abstract: Taiwan initiated a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) programme in May 2007. Seventy-seven MDR-TB patients were enrolled from May 2007 to February 2009 in Eastern Taiwan. Isolates of 73 (94%) patients were available for genotyping using spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR (mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeats). Spoligotyping results indicated the Beijing strain as the predominant genotype (n = 48, 66%). Of the 73 isolates, 28 (38.4%) had a unique pattern and 45 (61.6%) were clustered pattern strains. Epidemiological links could be established in 21 (46.7%) of the 45 patients with a clustered pattern strain. The proportion of MDR-TB patients with a clustered pattern strain in Eastern Taiwan was high.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan.
authors.forename: A-H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: C-B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Y-S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: C-Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: L-K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y-S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: J-J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology / Q000379:methods*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D055815:Young Adult