Screening of inmates transferred to Spain reveals a Peruvian prison as a reservoir of persistent Mycobacterium tuberculosis MDR strains and mixed infections

Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 17;10(1):2704. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59373-w.

Abstract

It is relevant to evaluate MDR-tuberculosis in prisons and its impact on the global epidemiology of this disease. However, systematic molecular epidemiology programs in prisons are lacking. A health-screening program performed on arrival for inmates transferred from Peruvian prisons to Spain led to the diagnosis of five MDR-TB cases from one of the biggest prisons in Latin America. They grouped into two MIRU-VNTR-clusters (Callao-1 and Callao-2), suggesting a reservoir of two prevalent MDR strains. A high-rate of overexposure was deduced because one of the five cases was coinfected by a pansusceptible strain. Callao-1 strain was also identified in 2018 in a community case in Spain who had been in the same Peruvian prison in 2002-5. A strain-specific-PCR tailored from WGS data was implemented in Peru, allowing the confirmation that these strains were currently responsible for the majority of the MDR cases in that prison, including a new mixed infection.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antitubercular Agents / therapeutic use
  • Bacterial Typing Techniques
  • Coinfection
  • Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Mass Screening
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis / genetics*
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis / isolation & purification
  • Mycobacterium tuberculosis / pathogenicity
  • Patient Transfer
  • Peru / epidemiology
  • Prevalence
  • Prisoners*
  • Prisons
  • Spain / epidemiology
  • Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / drug therapy
  • Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / epidemiology*
  • Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / microbiology
  • Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / transmission
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / drug therapy
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / epidemiology*
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / microbiology
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / transmission

Substances

  • Antitubercular Agents