SETTING: Screening of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients from high school students by chest radiography and sputum examination. OBJECTIVE: To investigate transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis among high school students. DESIGN: The restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profiles of M. tuberculosis isolated from PTB patients of high school students were analysed. RESULTS: Clustering cases were found in PTB patients screened among high school students. During this study, a single strain with a particular RFLP profile was found most frequently. This particular strain was also the one that was found to be most prevalent among Korean clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis during a nationwide TB prevalence survey previously done in 1995. This strain seems to be the most widely distributed one in Korea, and has thus been designated K1. In addition, by close examination of the RFLP profiles, it was also found that there existed 34 isolates that had RFLP profiles that were similar to the K1 strain. Therefore, K1 and K1-related strains (18.4% of strains, designated as the K family) seem to comprise the most dominant M. tuberculosis strains present in Korea. CONCLUSION: Clustering cases were found in PTB patients screened among high school students in Korea. The K family was found to be most prevalent among the clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis found.
SETTING: Screening of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients from high school students by chest radiography and sputum examination. OBJECTIVE: To investigate transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis among high school students. DESIGN: The restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) profiles of M. tuberculosis isolated from PTB patients of high school students were analysed. RESULTS: Clustering cases were found in PTB patients screened among high school students. During this study, a single strain with a particular RFLP profile was found most frequently. This particular strain was also the one that was found to be most prevalent among Korean clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis during a nationwide TB prevalence survey previously done in 1995. This strain seems to be the most widely distributed one in Korea, and has thus been designated K1. In addition, by close examination of the RFLP profiles, it was also found that there existed 34 isolates that had RFLP profiles that were similar to the K1 strain. Therefore, K1 and K1-related strains (18.4% of strains, designated as the K family) seem to comprise the most dominant M. tuberculosis strains present in Korea. CONCLUSION: Clustering cases were found in PTB patients screened among high school students in Korea. The K family was found to be most prevalent among the clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis found.
Authors: Isdore Chola Shamputa; Jongseok Lee; Caroline Allix-Béguec; Eun-Jin Cho; Ji-im Lee; Vignesh Rajan; Eun Gae Lee; Jin Hong Min; Matthew W Carroll; Lisa C Goldfeder; Jin Hee Kim; Hyung Seok Kang; Soohee Hwang; Seok-Yong Eum; Seung Kyu Park; Hyeyoung Lee; Philip Supply; Sang-Nae Cho; Laura E Via; Clifton E Barry Journal: J Clin Microbiol Date: 2009-12-16 Impact factor: 5.948