Reduced transmission of Mycobacterium africanum compared to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in urban West Africa.

Objective Understanding transmission dynamics is useful for tuberculosis (TB) control. A population-based molecular epidemiological study was conducted to determine TB transmission in Ghana. Methods Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) isolates obtained from prospectively sampled pulmonary TB patients between July 2012 and December 2015 were characterized using spoligotyping and standard 15-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) typing for transmission studies. Results Out of 2309 MTBC isolates, 1082 (46.9%) unique cases were identified, with 1227 (53.1%) isolates belonging to one of 276 clusters. The recent TB transmission rate was estimated to be 41.2%. Whereas TB strains of lineage 4 belonging to M. tuberculosis showed a high recent transmission rate (44.9%), reduced recent transmission rates were found for lineages of Mycobacterium africanum (lineage 5, 31.8%; lineage 6, 24.7%). Conclusions The study findings indicate high recent TB transmission, suggesting the occurrence of unsuspected outbreaks in Ghana. The observed reduced transmission rate of M. africanum suggests other factor(s) (host/environmental) may be responsible for its continuous presence in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]