Epidemiological and genomic determinants of tuberculosis outbreaks in First Nations communities in Canada ...

• Main Authors: Doroshenko, Alexander, Pepperell, Caitlin S, Heffernan, Courtney, Egedahl, Mary L, Mortimer, Tatum D, Smith, Tracy M, Bussan, Hailey E, Tyrrell, Gregory J, Long, Richard
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Calgary 2018
• Subjects: Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/44345; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/107950

Abstract Background In Canada, tuberculosis disproportionately affects foreign-born and First Nations populations. Within First Nations’ peoples, a high proportion of cases occur in association with outbreaks. Tuberculosis transmission in the context of outbreaks is thought to result from the convergence of several factors including characteristics of the cases, contacts, the environment, and the pathogen. Methods We examined the epidemiological and genomic determinants of two well-characterized tuberculosis outbreaks attributed to two super-spreaders among First Nations in the province of Alberta. These outbreaks were associated with two distinct DNA fingerprints (restriction fragment-length polymorphisms or RFLPs 0.0142 and 0.0728). We compared outbreak isolates with endemic isolates not spatio-temporarily linked to outbreak cases. We extracted epidemiological variables pertaining to tuberculosis cases and contacts from individual public health records and the provincial tuberculosis registry. We conducted ...