Molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in the Nord Department of France during 1995.

In order to determine the current situation and to evaluate the human to human transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Northern France, the genetic polymorphism of strains was studied by using IS6110 fingerprint. One hundred and fifty-eight cases of bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis were analyzed. One hundred and twenty-six patients (82%) were infected with genetically different isolates and 28 isolates (18%) were grouped into 14 clusters.