Four decades of transmission of a multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis outbreak strain

Vegard Eldholm (), Johana Monteserin, Adrien Rieux, Beatriz Lopez, Benjamin Sobkowiak, Viviana Ritacco and Francois Balloux ()
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Vegard Eldholm: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Johana Monteserin: Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas-ANLIS Carlos Malbrán
Adrien Rieux: Evolution and Environment, University College London
Beatriz Lopez: Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas-ANLIS Carlos Malbrán
Benjamin Sobkowiak: Evolution and Environment, University College London
Viviana Ritacco: Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas-ANLIS Carlos Malbrán
Francois Balloux: Evolution and Environment, University College London

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The rise of drug-resistant strains is a major challenge to containing the tuberculosis (TB) pandemic. Yet, little is known about the extent of resistance in early years of chemotherapy and when transmission of resistant strains on a larger scale became a major public health issue. Here we reconstruct the timeline of the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance during a major ongoing outbreak of multidrug-resistant TB in Argentina. We estimate that the progenitor of the outbreak strain acquired resistance to isoniazid, streptomycin and rifampicin by around 1973, indicating continuous circulation of a multidrug-resistant TB strain for four decades. By around 1979 the strain had acquired additional resistance to three more drugs. Our results indicate that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) with extensive resistance profiles circulated 15 years before the outbreak was detected, and about one decade before the earliest documented transmission of Mtb strains with such extensive resistance profiles globally.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8119

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