Avtor/Urednik		Žolnir-Dovč, Manca; Poljak, Mario; Eržen, Damijan; Šorli, Jurij
Naslov		Molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in Slovenia: results of a one-year (2001) nation-wide study
Tip		članek
Vir		Scand J Infect Dis
Vol. in št.		Letnik 35
Leto izdaje		2003
Obseg		str. 863-8
Jezik		eng
Abstrakt		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-veritied 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 identitied among Slovenian TB patients. The study increased our understanding of important risk factors and routes nf TB transmission in Slovenia.
Deskriptorji		TUBERCULOSIS MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS DNA FINGERPRINTING POLYMORPHISM, RESTRICTION FRAGMENT LENGTH CLUSTER ANALYSIS SLOVENIA