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

8 páginas, 4 figuras, 1 tabla. Información suplementaria accesible en: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59373-w
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.
This work was supported by ERANet-LAC [ELAC2015/T08–0664, E035-ERANet-LAC/J110-2016/FONDECYT, PER-2012-ELAC2015/T08-0664] and Instituto de Salud Carlos III [AC16/00057, FIS15/01554, FIS13/01207] and cofunded by European Regional Development Funds from the European Commission: “A way of making Europe”. FA holds a grant from IFARHUSENACYT [270-2016-293].