Spatial Patterns of Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Transmission in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Transmission is driving the global drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) epidemic; nearly three-quarters of drug-resistant TB cases are attributable to transmission. Geographic patterns of disease incidence, combined with information on probable transmission links, can define the spatial scale of transmission and generate hypotheses about factors driving transmission patterns.

Methods

We combined whole-genome sequencing data with home Global Positioning System coordinates from 344 participants with extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, diagnosed from 2011 to 2014. We aimed to determine if genomically linked (difference of ≤5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms) cases lived close to one another, which would suggest a role for local community se

SUBMITTER: Nelson KN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6217717 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature