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Case Reports
. 2013 Feb;51(2):611-4.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.02279-12. Epub 2012 Nov 21.

Rapid whole-genome sequencing for investigation of a suspected tuberculosis outbreak

M Estée Török  1 , Sandra Reuter, Josephine Bryant, Claudio U Köser, Sian V Stinchcombe, Bernadette Nazareth, Matthew J Ellington, Stephen D Bentley, Geoffrey P Smith, Julian Parkhill, Sharon J Peacock
Affiliations
Case Reports

Rapid whole-genome sequencing for investigation of a suspected tuberculosis outbreak

M Estée Török et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2013 Feb.

Abstract

Two Southeast Asian students attending the same school in the United Kingdom presented with pulmonary tuberculosis. An epidemiological investigation failed to link the two cases, and drug resistance profiles of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were discrepant. Whole-genome sequencing of the isolates found them to be genetically identical, suggesting a missed transmission event.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Phylogenetic analysis of M. tuberculosis isolates. A phylogenetic tree based on whole-genome sequence data comparing the suspected outbreak strains with previously published representatives of the major lineages of the M. tuberculosis complex (5). This includes the various M. tuberculosis lineages (Beijing, Central-Asian, Euro-American, and East-African-Indian), as well as one Mycobacterium africanum West-African 1 strain and animal strains (Mycobacterium orygis, Mycobacterium bovis, and the Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine). Both outbreak strains of patient 1 (TB478) and patient 2 (TB496) belonged to the Beijing lineage, and there were no SNP differences in the mapped genome between the two strains. This suggests transmission between the two patients or from a common, unidentified source.
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