TY - JOUR T1 - Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in Brussels, 2010-2013. JF - PLoS One Y1 - 2017 A1 - Vluggen, Christelle A1 - Soetaert, Karine A1 - Groenen, Guido A1 - Wanlin, Maryse A1 - Spitaels, Martine A1 - Arrazola de OƱate, Wouter A1 - Fauville-Dufaux, Maryse A1 - Saegerman, Claude A1 - Vanessa Mathys KW - ADOLESCENT KW - Adult KW - Bacterial Typing Techniques KW - Belgium KW - Child KW - Cluster Analysis KW - Contact Tracing KW - Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial KW - Emigrants and Immigrants KW - Family Health KW - Female KW - Genetic Variation KW - Genotype KW - Hospitals, Urban KW - Humans KW - incidence KW - Male KW - middle aged KW - Mycobacterium tuberculosis KW - Phylogeny KW - Population Surveillance KW - Tuberculosis KW - Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant KW - Urban Health KW - Young adult AB -

The tuberculosis (TB) incidence rate in Brussels-Capital Region is 3-fold higher than in Belgium as a whole. Eight years after the realization of initial prospective population-based molecular epidemiology investigations in this Region, a similar study over the period 2010-2013 was conducted. TB strains isolated from 945 patients were submitted to genotyping by standardized 24-locus-MIRU-VNTR typing and spoligotyping. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the LAM (16.7%) and Haarlem (15.7%) branches are the two most prevalent TB lineages circulating in Brussels. Analysis of the MDR subgroup showed an association with Beijing strains (39.9%) and patients native of Eastern Europe (40.7%). Genotyping detected 113 clusters involving 321 patients, giving a recent transmission index of 22.9%. Molecular-guided epidemiological investigations and routine surveillance activities revealed family transmission or social contact for patients distributed over 34 clusters. Most of the patients were foreign-born (75.7%). However, cluster analysis revealed only limited trans-national transmission. Comparison with the previous study shows a stable epidemiological situation except for the mean age difference between Belgian-born and foreign-born patients which has disappeared. This study confirms that molecular epidemiology has become an important determinant for TB control programs. However, sufficient financial means need to be available to perform all required epidemiological investigations.

VL - 12 CP - 2 U1 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28222189?dopt=Abstract M3 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0172554 ER -