isolates from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Background: Mozambique is one of the countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and information on the predominant genotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis circulating in the country are important to better understand the epidemic. This study determined the predominant strain lineages that cause TB in Mozambique. Results: A total of 445 M. tuberculosis isolates from seven different provinces of Mozambique were characterized by spoligotyping and resulting profiles were compared with the international spoligotyping database SITVIT2. The four most predominant lineages observed were: the Latin-American Mediterranean (LAM, n = 165 or 37%); the East African-Indian (EAI, n = 132 or 29.7%); an evolutionary recent but yet ill-defined T clade, (n = 52 or 11.6%); and the globally-emerging Beijing clone, (n = 31 or 7%). A high spoligotype diversity was found for the EAI, LAM and T lineages. Conclusions: The TB epidemic in Mozambique is caused by a wide diversity of spoligotypes with predominance of LAM, EAI, T and Beijing lineages. Background Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major health problems in Mozambique. It is estimated that 27,000 deaths caused by TB occur each year with an estimated incidence and prevalence rate of 431 and 504 per 100,000 population, respectively[1]. Mozambique ranks 19th on the list of 22 TB high-burden countries in the world. A steady increase in the prevalence rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (up to an estimated 16.2 % among the population aged 15 to 49 years in 2004) makes the situation even more pre-carious. Mozambique, with around 20 million inhabit-ants, shares geographical borders with six other countries where TB is also endemic, i.e., South Africa, Swaziland