Abstract:
Tuberculosis (TB) incidence in Ukraine has virtually doubled
since 1992, reaching 77.5/100 000 in 2003. Recent studies have
demonstrated that Beijing strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
dominate in certain regions of Russia and some countries of the
former Soviet Union (FSU). The spread of Beijing strains and
their strong association with high levels of drug resistance are
believed to be major factors contributing to the TB epidemic in
the FSU. Limited data regarding drug resistance rates are
available only for selected regions of Ukraine and the prevalence
of different genotypes and their contribution to the TB epidemic
in Ukraine is unknown. Materials and methods: Total of 110 Mycobacterium tuberculosis
strains isolated from patients with pulmonary TB from Odessa
and Nikolaev oblasts were analysed. Beijing strains were
identified using spoligotyping. The prevalence of mutations in
rpoB, katG and inhA associated with rifampicin and isoniazid
resistance was evaluated using a dot-blot hybridization macroarray based on reverse hybridization of biotin-labelled PCR
products to oligonucleotide probes immobilized on membranes.
