A case of Mycobacterium africanum infection in Korea : monitoring result from National TB typing service = A case of Mycobacterium africanum infection in Korea : monitoring result from National TB typing service

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The increase rate of tuberculosis (TB) among foreigners in Korea possesses important significance in public health. In this study, we report a case of Mycobacterium africanum which was first isolated in Korea from the results of National TB typing service. From the results of spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRU-VNTR, phylogenetic tree analysis suggested that this isolate was closed to M. africanum. And corresponding to TB-insight database, the isolate was identified as M. africanum lineage 2. The isolate was further characterized by performing standard biochemical identification tests, rpoB and hsp65 gene sequencing, and drug susceptibility testing test for first and second line by using the MGIT 960 system. The results of these tests provide the isolate is M. africanum and this bacteria is pan-susceptible to anti-tubercle drugs. From the epidemiological data, the patient was 25-year-old man from Liberia who had entered Korea in February 2016. After 1.5 years later, he had been registered at the public health center as TB patient in October 2017 and completely recovered after standard 6 month treatment. It seems to be the patient would be exposed the bacteria in his own country. Monitoring the genotype of TB is important to distinguish imported TB from domestic TB to identify the route of infection.