title: [Molecular epidemiology studies on the immigrant population in Spain].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Molecular epidemiology is a new scientific discipline which allows to integrate information on the genetic variation of infectious pathogens with their diffusion in a population and its subgroups including, for instance, resistance mutations to antibiotics and antiretrovirals. We present the results of an analysis of scientific publications that analyze the health status of the immigrant population in Spain from a molecular epidemiology perspective.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed original articles published in 1998-2014 with the keywords "molecular epidemiology", "molecular typing", "sequencing", "immigrant", and "Spain".
  
  
  RESULTS
  From a total of 267 articles identified initially, only 50 passed through the established filters. Most of them (36) analyzed infections by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (3) and HIV (3), followed at a large distance by Staphylococcus aureus and hepatitis B virus. The main goal of these works was the typing of the pathogen and to determine the frequency of resistance mutations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Is difficult to generalize the conclusions from the analyzed articles because most of them have a purely descriptive and quite restricted scope, considering the type and size of the samples studied. Several studies are focused on the most likely origin for the strains or variants of the pathogen but others also reveal transmissions from the local to the immigrant populations.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: González-Candelas
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alma Bracho
authors.forename: Iñaki
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Comas
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: d'Auria
authors.forename: Mária
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D Unková
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: María José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Gosalbes
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Isaac
authors.forename: Amparo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Latorre
authors.forename: Francisco Xavier
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: López-Labrador
authors.forename: Juan Ángel
authors.initials: JÁ
authors.lastname: Patiño Galindo
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palero
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pérez-Brocal
authors.forename: Ana Elena
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Pérez-Cobas
authors.forename: Leonor
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Busó
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Jorge F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Vázquez-Castellanos
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moya
mesh_terms: D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics*; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology