Proportion of tuberculosis transmission that takes place in households in a high-incidence area

The prevalence of infection among household contacts of people with tuberculosis is high. This information frequently guides active case finding. We analysed DNA fingerprints of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from 765 tuberculosis patients in Ravensmead and Uitsig, adjacent suburbs of Cape Town, South A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2004-01, Vol.363 (9404), p.212-214
Main Authors: Verver, Suzanne, Warren, Robin M, Munch, Zahn, Richardson, Madalene, van der Spuy, Gian D, Borgdorff, Martien W, Behr, Marcel A, Beyers, Nulda, van Helden, Paul D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Bacterial diseases
Biological and medical sciences
Cluster Analysis
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Disease Transmission, Infectious - statistics & numerical data
DNA
DNA Fingerprinting
DNA fingerprints
Family Characteristics
Female
General aspects
Households
Human bacterial diseases
Humans
Incidence
Infections
Infectious diseases
Male
Medical sciences
Mycobacterium tuberculosis - genetics
Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
South Africa - epidemiology
Suburbs
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis - epidemiology
Tuberculosis - microbiology
Tuberculosis - transmission
Tuberculosis and atypical mycobacterial infections
Viruses
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Summary:The prevalence of infection among household contacts of people with tuberculosis is high. This information frequently guides active case finding. We analysed DNA fingerprints of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from 765 tuberculosis patients in Ravensmead and Uitsig, adjacent suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. In 129 households in which DNA fingerprints were available for more than one patient, we identified 313 patients, of whom 145 (46%) had a fingerprint pattern matching that of another member of the household. The proportion of transmission in the community that took place in the household was 19%, and therefore, in this high-incidence area, tuberculosis transmission occurs mainly outside the household.
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(03)15332-9