Genomic investigation of a mycobacterium tuberculosis outbreak involving prison and community cases in Florida, United States
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We used whole-genome sequencing to investigate a tuberculosis outbreak involving U.S.-born persons in the prison system and both U.S.- and foreign-born persons in the community in Florida over a 7-year period (2009-2015). Genotyping by spacer oligonucleotide typing and 24-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat suggested that the outbreak might be clonal in origin. However, contact tracing could not link the two populations. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we showed that the cluster involved distinct bacterial transmission networks segregated by country of birth. The source strain is of foreign origin and circulated in the local Florida community for more than 20 years before introduction into the prison system. We also identified novel transmission links involving foreign and U.S.-born cases not discovered during contact investigation. Our data highlight the potential for spread of strains originating from outside the United States into U.S. "high-risk" populations (such as prisoners), with subsequent movement back to the general community.
Date Issued
2018-10-01
Date Acceptance
2018-07-01
Citation
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2018, 99 (4), pp.867-874
ISSN
0002-9637
Publisher
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Start Page
867
End Page
874
Journal / Book Title
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume
99
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29987998
Subjects
11 Medical And Health Sciences
Tropical Medicine
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2018-07-09