Hyper transmission of Beijing lineage Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Malancha Karmakar; James M Trauer; David B Ascher; Justin T Denholm
Abstract
The globally distributed "Beijing" lineage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been associated with outbreaks worldwide. Laboratory based studies have suggested that Beijing lineage may have increased fitness; however, it has not been established whether these differences are of epidemiological significance with regards to transmission. Therefore, we undertook a systematic review of epidemiological studies of tuberculosis clustering to compare the transmission dynamics of Beijing lineages versus the non-Beijing lineages.We systematically searched Embase and MEDLINE before 31st December 2018, for studies which provided information on the transmission dynamics of the different M. tuberculosis lineages. We included articles that conducted population-based cross-sectional or longitudinal molecular epidemiological studies reporting information about extent of transmission of different lineages. The protocol for this systematic review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO (CDR42018088579).Of 2855 records identified by the search, 46 were included in the review, containing 42,700 patients from 27 countries. Beijing lineage was the most prevalent and highly clustered strain in 72.4% of the studies and had a higher likelihood of transmission than non-Beijing lineages (OR 1·81 [95% 1·28-2·57], I = 94·0%, τ = 0·59, p < 0·01).2Despite considerable heterogeneity across epidemiological contexts, Beijing lineage appears to be more transmissible than other lineages.
Journal THE JOURNAL OF INFECTION
ISSN 1532-2742
Published 01 Dec 2019
Volume 79
Issue 6
Pages 572-581
DOI 10.1016/j.jinf.2019.09.016
Type Journal Article
Sponsorship