Geographic distribution of phage types among cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. II. Cultures from India and South Africa.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures obtained from India and South Africa were phage-typed to determine distribution patterns according to phage type in these two geographic locations. Of the 74 Indian strains, 14.9% were type 1, 32.4% were type 2, 28.4 were type 7, and 24.3% were type 8, whereas of the 78 South African strains, 20.5% were type 1, 47.5% were type 2, 1.3% were type 4, 11.5% were type 7, 19.2% were type 8. The phage types were then subdivided according to the lytic patterns produced by the six auxillary phages. The phage type distribution in the Indian and South African strains was compared with the type distribution in cultures from the United States and Southeast Asia, and differences were found in the four widely separated geographic areas.