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. 2024 Feb 7:12:1343350.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1343350. eCollection 2024.

A first insight into tuberculosis transmission at the border of Ecuador and Colombia: a retrospective study of the population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Esmeraldas province

Bernardo Castro-Rodriguez  1 , Sebastián Espinoza-Andrade  1 , Greta Franco-Sotomayor  2   3 , José Manuel Benítez-Medina  4 , Natalia Jiménez-Pizarro  4 , Camilo Cárdenas-Franco  3 , Juan Carlos Granda  2 , Jose Luis Jouvin  3 , Solon Alberto Orlando  2   5 , Javier Hermoso de Mendoza  4 , Miguel Ángel García-Bereguiain  1
Affiliations

A first insight into tuberculosis transmission at the border of Ecuador and Colombia: a retrospective study of the population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Esmeraldas province

Bernardo Castro-Rodriguez et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Objective: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health concern in Ecuador and Colombia, considering that both countries are high-burden TB settings. Molecular epidemiology is crucial to understand the transmission dynamics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and to identify active transmission clusters of regional importance.

Methods: We studied the potential transmission of TB between Colombia and Ecuador through the analysis of the population structure of MTBC lineages circulating in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas at the border with Colombia. A total of 105 MTBC strains were characterized by 24-loci MIRU-VNTR and spoligotyping.

Results: MTBC lineage 4 is only present in Esmeraldas; no MTBC strains belonging to Lineage 2-sublineage Beijing were found despite its presence in other provinces of Ecuador and, in Colombia. Genotyping results revealed a high degree of diversity for MTBC in Esmeraldas: Neither active transmission clusters within this province nor including MTBC strains from Colombia or other provinces of Ecuador were found.

Conclusion: Our data suggest that tuberculosis dynamics in this rural and isolated area may be not related to highly transmitted strains but could be influenced by other health determinants that favor TB relapse such as poverty and poor health system access. Further studies including a larger number of MTBC strains from Esmeraldas are necessary to test this hypothesis.

Keywords: Ecuador; MIRU-VNTR; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; migration; spoligotyping.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Population structure of MTBC from Esmeraldas province. The neighbor-joining tree was done with 24-loci MIRU-VNTR and spoligotyping data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographical and sublineage distribution of MTBC strains from Esmeraldas (our study), Ecuador (9), and Colombia (20). Ring charts represent the occurrence of MTBC lineages in Esmeraldas province, the rest of Ecuador, and Colombia.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Minimum spanning tree of MTBC strains from Ecuador and Esmeraldas included in this study using 24-loci MIRU-VNTR data. Distinction of genotypic lineages is shown by dotted circles of different colors. The maximum locus difference within a clonal complex is 2.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Minimum spanning trees of MTBC strains from Esmeraldas and Colombia included in this study: (A) using 24-loci MIRU-VNTR data and (B) using Spoligotyping data. Distinction of genotypic lineages is shown by dotted circles of different colors. Red arrows indicate clonal complexes formed between MTBC strains from Esmeraldas province and Colombia (Maximum locus difference within a clonal complex is 2). MTBC strains from the Colombian Department of Nariño, on the border with Esmeraldas, are labeled in yellow.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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