Increasing circulation of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis strains in Buryatia, high-burden and ethnically diverse region in the Russian Far East.

Buryatia is a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) high-burden region in the Russian Far East with ethnically diverse population (30 % Mongoloid Buryats and 65 % Russians). Two hundred M. tuberculosis strains from newly-diagnosed patients were subjected to phenotypic testing and genotyping.

Extremely lethal and hypervirulent strain cluster emerging in Far East, Russia.

strains of the early ancient sublineage of the Beijing genotype are mostly drug susceptible and mainly circulate in East Asia. We have recently discovered two clusters of this sublineage emerging in the Asian part of Russia (VNTR-defined 1071-32 and 14717-15 types) and, to our surprise, both were strongly MDR/XDR-associated. Here, we evaluated their pathogenic features.

[Identification of ubiquitous and endemic Mycobacterium tuberculosis genotypes in the Republic of Buryatia].

The MIRU-12 and MIRU-24 methods were used for genotyping and estimation of M. tuberculosis population structure in Buryatia. It was studied in 283 strains isolated from individuals from the regional TB dispensary and medical clinics of the penitentiary system of the republic.

[The composition and drug sensitivity of a mycobacterial population in patients with suspected tuberculosis].

By using the diagnostic material (175 sputum samples and 103 bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples) taken from 39 patients with suspected tuberculous infection during a 2.5-month follow-up, the authors traced the time course of changes in the composition and drug sensitivity of a mycobacterial population to rifampicin. Along with the traditional microbiological studies, the latest molecular biological studies, a TB-BIOCHIP test system (enzyme immunoassay) in particular, were employed to detect the bacterial and L-transformed forms of the causative agent.