Clinical presentation and outcome of tuberculosis patients infected by M. africanum versus M. tuberculosis.
de Jong, BC;
Hill, PC;
Aiken, A;
Jeffries, DJ;
Onipede, A;
Small, PM;
Adegbola, RA;
Corrah, TP;
(2007)
Clinical presentation and outcome of tuberculosis patients infected by M. africanum versus M. tuberculosis.
The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease, 11 (4).
pp. 450-456.
ISSN 1027-3719
https://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/id/eprint/58960
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SETTING: A tuberculosis (TB) case contact study in the Gambia. OBJECTIVE: To test whether Mycobacterium africanum, which has lost around 68 kb compared with M. tuberculosis sensu stricto, causes less severe TB disease. DESIGN: We genotyped mycobacterial isolates and compared clinical and radiological characteristics as well as outcome data of M. africanum-infected TB patients with those infected with M. tuberculosis. RESULTS: Of 317 index cases, 301 had a mycobacterial isolate available, 290 of which had an interpretable spoligotype pattern. Of these, 110 isolates (38%) were M. africanum and 180 (62%) were M. tuberculosis. M. africanum cases had lower body mass indices (17 vs. 17.45 for M. tuberculosis-infected patients, P = 0.029) and their radiographic disease was more extensive (96% vs. 89% had at least moderately severe radiographic changes, P = 0.031). Outcome on treatment was similar (2.8% of human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] negative M. africanum patients died on treatment vs. 3.0% of M. tuberculosis patients, P = 0.95). CONCLUSION: M. africanum causes sputum smear-positive tuberculosis disease that is at least as severe as that caused by M. tuberculosis sensu stricto. Further clinical comparisons may be helpful in smear-negative patients and HIV-TB co-infected patients, and to identify whether there is any difference in time to develop disease.