Molecular Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in Slovenia: Results of a One-Year (2001) Nation-wide Study

• Published in: Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases 2003-12, Vol.35 (11-12), p.863-868
• Main Authors: olnir-dov, Manca, Poljak, Mario, Er en, Damijan, Šorli, Jurij
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Distribution; Aged; Bacterial diseases; Biological and medical sciences; Cluster Analysis; Cohort Studies; Contact Tracing; Disease Transmission, Infectious; DNA Fingerprinting; DNA, Bacterial - analysis; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human bacterial diseases; Humans; Incidence; Infectious diseases; Male; Medical sciences; Microbiology; Middle Aged; Molecular Biology - methods; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - genetics; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - isolation & purification; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; Prospective Studies; Risk Assessment; Sensitivity and Specificity; Sex Distribution; Slovenia - epidemiology; Tuberculosis - diagnosis; Tuberculosis - epidemiology; Tuberculosis - transmission; Tuberculosis and atypical mycobacterial infections
• ISSN: 0036-5548; 1651-1980
• DOI: 10.1080/00365540310017221

Slovenia is a small Central European country with a population of 1.99 million and an incidence of tuberculosis (TB) of 18.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2001. In a prospective nation-wide, 1-y DNA fingerprinting study, the genetic diversity of 99.7% of all Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates obtained from Slovenian patients with culture-verified TB in 2001 were assessed using a standardized IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method. Among 306 M. tuberculosis isolates, 228 different IS6110 RFLP patterns were found. The number of IS6110 copies varied from 2 to 16 (9.2 copies per isolate on average). Only 2 isolates (0.7%) with less than 5 IS6110 copies were identified. Clustered M. tuberculosis isolates were detected in 116 (37.9%) patients. The degree of recent transmission in the 1-y period was 25%. The clustering rate decreased with age from 46.4% (age group under 35 y) to 19.5% (age group above 65 y). A history of alcohol abuse and homelessness was found to be associated with clustering of TB cases. In conclusion, a high clustering frequency was identified among Slovenian TB patients. The study increased our understanding of important risk factors and routes of TB transmission in Slovenia.