High prevalence of clustered tuberculosis cases in peruvian migrants in florence, Italy

Lorenzo Zammarchi; Enrico Tortoli; Emanuele Borroni; Filippo Bartalesi; Marianne Strohmeyer; Simonetta Baretti; Maria Tullia Simonetti; Carola Liendo; Maria Grazia Santini; Gian Maria Rossolini; Eduardo Gotuzzo; Alessandro Bartoloni; COHEMI project study group

doi:10.4081/idr.2014.5646

High prevalence of clustered tuberculosis cases in peruvian migrants in florence, Italy

Infect Dis Rep. 2014 Dec 11;6(4):5646. doi: 10.4081/idr.2014.5646. eCollection 2014 Nov 19.

Affiliations

¹ Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence School of Medicine , Italy.
² Emerging Bacterial Pathogens, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute , Milan, Italy.
³ SOD Malattie Infettive e Tropicali, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi , Florence, Italy.
⁴ UF Igiene e Sanità Pubblica , ASL 10 Zona Firenze, Florence, Italy.
⁵ SOD Microbiologia e Virologia, Centro di Riferimento per i Micobatteri della Regione Toscana, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi , Florence, Italy.
⁶ Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia , Lima, Peru.
⁷ Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence School of Medicine , Italy ; SOD Malattie Infettive e Tropicali, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi , Florence, Italy.

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a leading cause of morbidity for Peruvian migrants in Florence, Italy, where they account for about 20% of yearly diagnosed cases. A retrospective study on cases notified in Peruvian residents in Florence in the period 2001-2010 was carried out and available Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains were genotyped (MIRU-VNTR-24 and Spoligotyping). One hundred thirty eight cases were retrieved. Genotyping performed in 87 strains revealed that 39 (44.8%) belonged to 12 clusters. Assuming that in each cluster the transmission of tuberculosis from the index case took place in Florence, a large proportion of cases could be preventable by improving early diagnosis of contagious cases and contact tracing.

Keywords: Italy; Peru; cluster; epidemiology; immigrants; migrants; tuberculosis.

Grants and funding

Funding: the study was carried out within the COHEMI (COordinating resources to assess and improve HEalth status of MIgrants from Latin America)-project. This is a three-year collaborative project supported by the European Commission under the Health Cooperation Work Programme of the 7th FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME (GA-261495) launched in 2011 (http://www.cohemi-project.eu/).