© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Thoracic Society
EDITORIAL
Tuberculosis transmission
Molecular epidemiology unmasks the tubercle bacillus: new techniques reveal new aspects of virulence
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
P D O Davies
Cardiothoracic Centre, Thomas Drive, Liverpool L14 3PE; peter.davies@ctc.nhs.uk
Molecular methods show that TB is being transmitted with surprising efficiency
Keywords: tuberculosis; molecular epidemiology; tuberculosis transmission
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Two papers in this month’s edition of Thorax show how the use of strain typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can reveal new aspects of tuberculosis (TB) transmission.1,2 The study by Ruddy et al,1 based around an outbreak of isoniazid resistant TB in north London, shows that a single outbreak can extend over many years and affect a broad range of individuals including medical staff. The second study by Hernández-Garduño et al2 suggests that sputum smear negative disease can have an appreciable transmission rate. Although molecular epidemiology can unmask the problem, solutions may be more difficult to develop.
Using IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, at the time of writing Ruddy et al had identified over 70 cases, ominously adding that, on epidemiological modelling, the peak had not yet been reached. Initial estimates by the end of December 2003 suggest that the outbreak may already have reached 132
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Thorax 2004 59: 273.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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