Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • ERJ Early View
  • Past issues
  • ERS Guidelines
  • Authors/reviewers
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Open access
    • Peer reviewer login
    • WoS Reviewer Recognition Service
  • Alerts
  • Subscriptions
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

User menu

  • Log in
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

Login

European Respiratory Society

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • ERJ Early View
  • Past issues
  • ERS Guidelines
  • Authors/reviewers
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Open access
    • Peer reviewer login
    • WoS Reviewer Recognition Service
  • Alerts
  • Subscriptions

Drug-resistant tuberculosis among foreign-born persons in Italy

Lanfranco Fattorini, Alessandro Mustazzolu, Giovanni Piccaro, Manuela Pardini, Perla Filippini, Federico Giannoni, Giovanni Battista Migliori, Giovanni Sotgiu, Emanuele Borroni, Daniela Maria Cirillo, the Italian Multicentre Study on Resistance to Antituberculosis Drugs (SMIRA) Group
European Respiratory Journal 2012 40: 497-500; DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00021012
Lanfranco Fattorini
*Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: lanfranco.fattorini@iss.it
Alessandro Mustazzolu
*Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Giovanni Piccaro
*Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Manuela Pardini
*Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Perla Filippini
*Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Federico Giannoni
*Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive, Parassitarie e Immunomediate, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Giovanni Battista Migliori
#WHO Collaborating Centre for TB and Lung Diseases, Fondazione S. Maugeri, Care and Research Institute, Tradate,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Giovanni Sotgiu
¶Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Unit, Dept of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Sassari,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Emanuele Borroni
+Emerging Bacterial Pathogens Unit, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Daniela Maria Cirillo
+Emerging Bacterial Pathogens Unit, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
§A full list of the SMIRA group members and their affiliations can be found in the Acknowledgements section,
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

To the Editors:

Over the last few years, drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) has emerged as an important threat to public health in industrialised countries. In Italy, the most recent data on resistance to the first-line drugs (FLDs) streptomycin (S), isoniazid (H), rifampicin (R) and ethambutol (E) were reported for the period 1998–2001 [1]. These studies determined the prevalence of resistance among new cases and previously treated cases, but no information was available on the contribution of immigration, which plays an important role on TB epidemiology in low-incidence countries [2].

In the last decade, while the notified incidence of TB in Italy was stable at approximately seven cases per 100,000 people annually, the proportion of foreign-born persons (FBPs) with TB increased from 22% in 1999 to 46% in 2008 [3]. In the same period, the proportion of African-born persons with TB decreased from 51% to 30%, whereas the proportion of European cases increased from 16% to 33%, most of them being born in Eastern Europe, including Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries.

Eastern European countries are among those with the highest TB rates caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains (i.e. resistant to at least H and R) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains (i.e. MDR strains resistant to any fluoroquinolone and to at least one injectable second-line drug (SLD): kanamycin (KM), capreomycin (CM), amikacin (AK)) [4].

Reliable drug susceptibility testing (DST) is essential to diagnose TB caused by drug-resistant strains. In Italy, a network of laboratories coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) Supranational Reference Laboratory (SRL) in Rome performs drug susceptibility proficiency testing for S, H, R, E (five rounds from 1997 to 2010) and SLD (KM, AK, CM and ofloxacin (OFL)) (one round in 2010) [5].

In order to understand the impact of immigration on drug-resistant TB in Italy, we conducted a retrospective study over the period 2008–2010 to investigate drug-resistance proportions and drug-resistance profiles of M. tuberculosis strains circulating among FBPs and Italian-born persons (IBPs).

Our laboratory network (Italian Multicentre Study on Resistance to Antituberculosis drugs (SMIRA)) is composed of 30 hospital mycobacteriology laboratories located in 19 out of 20 Italian regions, selected on the basis of: 1) technical skills for DST, periodically evaluated by proficiency testing [5]; 2) number of first-line DSTs performed annually (a mean of 72, 88 and 78 DSTs per laboratory in 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively); and 3) convenient geographic location reflecting different TB-specific settings. In 2010, SMIRA covered 59% of nationwide notified cases, allowing preparation of the national annual report on drug resistance [3].

TB cases with positive M. tuberculosis cultures were routinely examined by SMIRA laboratories for susceptibility to S, H, R and E. DST procedures included testing on solid media (proportion method in Löwenstein–Jensen (LJ) medium) and liquid media (BACTEC 460 TB (BACTEC) and MGIT 960 (MGIT) systems; Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD, USA). In 2008, the LJ, BACTEC and MGIT procedures were used by 14%, 10% and 76% of laboratories, respectively. In 2009, the use of MGIT increased, and reached 100% in 2010. MDR-TB isolates were sent to the SRL to retest susceptibility to FLDs and test susceptibility to SLDs. Susceptibility to S, H, R, E, KM, AK, CM, OFL, moxifloxacin (MX), ethionamide (ETH), linezolid (LZ) was determined by the MGIT system, using the following concentrations: 1.0, 0.1, 1.0, 5.0, 5.0, 1.0, 2.5, 2.0, 0.25, 5.0 and 1.0 μg·mL−1, respectively [5, 6].

Data on resistance to FLDs and SLDs of strains isolated in 2008–2010 from IBPs and FBPs are given in table 1. The five countries mainly contributing to the FBP group were Romania (28.7%), Morocco (9.9%), Peru (5.8%), Pakistan (5.8%) and India (5.6%). A lower FBP proportion emigrated from high MDR-TB burden FSU countries [4], including Ukraine (2.5%), Moldova (2.2%) and others (Russia, Georgia, Latvia, Armenia and Belarus (<1%)). We stratified FBP data in three groups: Romania (the largest TB group), FSU (the highest MDR-TB prevalence group) and all others.

View this table:
  • View inline
  • View popup
Table 1– First- and second-line anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from Italian-born persons (IBPs) and foreign-born persons (FBPs) in the period 2008–2010

Out of 5,267 TB cases with known country of birth (table 1), FBPs were significantly younger that IBPs (mean±sd 35±14 versus 58±22 yrs, respectively; p<0.0001) and arrived in Italy from 84 countries. 40% came from Europe (29% from Romania, 6% from FSU countries and 5% from other European countries), 27% from Africa, 21% from Asia and 12% from the Americas. 61% of IBPs and 63% of FBPs were male (p=0.14). 81% of IBPs and 78% of FBPs were new cases (p=0.007). Noticeably, cases from the FSU were more likely to harbour strains resistant to one or more FLDs (47.6%) than those isolated from IBPs, Romanian-born persons and other FBPs (27.0% (p<0.0001), 29.8% (p<0.0001) and 35.3% (p=0.003), respectively). Overall, the highest prevalence of monoresistance was seen for S and H, while monoresistance to R and E was low (<1%). Monoresistance to H in patients from the FSU (6.9%) was significantly higher than in IBPs (3.2%; p=0.02). The prevalence of any form of resistance to S and H was higher than those to R and E.

The overall MDR-TB prevalence was 3.8%, with large differences between groups. The MDR rate was low in IBPs (1.4%), but high in immigrants from the FSU, Romania and all other foreign countries (30.3% (p<0.0001), 5.9% (p<0.0001) and 4.1% (p<0.0001), respectively). Out of 44 MDR-TB patients from the FSU, most came from Ukraine (47.8%) and Moldova (34%), and a minority from Russia, Armenia and Belarus. All these countries are included in the WHO list of high MDR-TB burden countries responsible for 85% of the global MDR-TB burden [4]. FBPs with MDR-TB were younger than IBPs (mean±sd 33±12 versus 53±21 yrs, respectively; p<0.0001) and most of them were new cases (55%), while most IBPs were previously treated cases (62%). As for drug combinations, MDR strains showed low resistance to HR and HRE, but were frequently resistant to SHRE and SHR. Almost 90% of MDR-TB cases (175 out of 198) were resistant to at least three FLDs. The highest frequency of the SHRE resistance pattern was seen in strains collected from patients coming from FSU (20.7%) and the lowest in strains collected from IBPs (0.5%) (p<0.0001). Other H and R plus S or E resistances were rare.

Among 80 MDR strains tested for susceptibility to SLDs (68 from FBPs and 12 from IBPs), the highest total percentage of resistance was seen to ETH (47.5%), followed by KM, AK and CM (≥20%). Overall, the drugs potentially active for clinical use were OFL, MX and LZ (18.8%, 16.2% and 12.5% resistance, respectively). Six MDR-TB isolates were XDR strains (two from Ukraine, and one each from Moldova, Romania, Peru and Bangladesh), with LZ being the only drug active against all of them.

Few nationwide data have been reported on FLD and SLD resistance in FBPs [7]. In Italy, the MDR-TB prevalence in FBPs was consistent with that of their native countries (e.g. in 2009: Romania, 11.2%; Ukraine, 19%; Moldova, 44.3%) [4, 8]. The study results demonstrated, for the first time under a national perspective, that: 1) IBP contribution to MDR-TB is low; and 2) MDR-TB strains isolated from FBPs (particularly from the FSU) are highly resistant to FLDs. Thus, efficient strategies for rapid identification and treatment of MDR-TB cases in FBPs are imperative. SLD data showed that resistance to LZ seemed to be still low, suggesting its use for difficult-to-treat cases. Indeed, LZ-containing combinations are administered for off-label therapy of MDR/XDR-TB in Italy and other countries [9, 10]. However, new drugs are necessary to treat these life-threatening cases.

Acknowledgments

The members of the SMIRA Group were: C. Piersimoni (Ospedali Riuniti, Ancona, Italy); P. Lorenzetti (Ospedale di Aosta, Aosta, Italy); D. Costa (Policlinico di Bari, Bari, Italy); A. Grimaldi (Ospedale Fallacara, Triggiano, Bari, Italy); M. Arosio and A. Goglio (Ospedali Riuniti, Bergamo, Italy); C. Mazza and L. Squintani (Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna, Italy); C. Larcher and E. Frizzera (Azienda Sanitaria dell’Alto Adige, Bolzano, Italy); G. Pinsi (Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy); R. Caddeu and A.G. Farris (Ospedale Binaghi, Cagliari, Italy); C. Di Naso (Policlinico Ospedaliero Garibaldi Centro, Catania, Italy); P. Cavalcanti (Ospedale Annunziata, Cosenza, Italy); G. Tomei and G. Mantini (Ospedale di Chieti, Chieti, Italy); E. Tortoli and M. T. Simonetti (Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria di Careggi, Florence, Italy); A. di Taranto (Ospedale di Foggia, Foggia, Italy); E. Senno (Ospedale S. Martino, Genoa, Italy); S. Nisticò (Ospedale di Lamezia Terme, Catanzaro, Italy); C. Colonna and L. Buono (Ospedale Contrada Ambulante, Matera, Italy); E. Mazzola and G. Gesu (Azienda Ospedaliera Niguarda Ca Granda, Milan, Italy); P. Cichero (Ospedale S. Raffaele, Milan); A. Lombardi (Ospedale L. Sacco, Milan); A. Fabio, (Policlinico di Modena, Modena, Italy); G. Santoro (Azienda Ospedaliera dei Colli, Ospedale V. Monaldi, Naples, Italy); G.L. Molinari and A. Camaggi (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Maggiore della Carità, Novara, Italy); M.G. Chirillo (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria S. Luigi Gonzaga, Orbassano, Turin, Italy); M. Peracchi and L. Fallico (Azienda Ospedaliera-Università di Padova, Padua, Italy); P. Marone and L. Bono (IRCCS S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy); R. Mazzolla and C. Tiecco (Azienda Ospedaliera S. Maria della Misericordia, Perugia, Italy); P. Chiaradonna, M. Tronci and A. M. Altieri (Azienda Ospedaliera S. Camillo-Forlanini, Rome, Italy); E. Bordi, P. De Mori and A. Di Caro (INMI, Ospedale L. Spallanzani, Rome); E. Libanori and S. De Lorenzo (Azienda Ospedaliera Valtellina e Valchiavenna, Sondalo, Italy); R. Milano and A. Mondo (Ospedale A. Di Savoia, Turin); A. Barbui (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria S. Giovanni Battista, Turin); R. Centis, L. D’Ambrosio and A. Spanevello (Fondazione S. Maugeri, Tradate, Italy); I. Caola (Ospedale di Trento, Trent, Italy); C. Fabris (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria, Ospedali Riuniti, Trieste, Italy); and M.C. Screm and C. Scarparo (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria S. Maria della Misericordia, Udine, Italy).

Footnotes

  • Support Statement

    This work was supported by the CCMProject of the Italian Ministry of Health and the European Commission through the FP7 PAN-NET Project.

  • Statement of Interest

    None declared.

  • ©ERS 2012

REFERENCES

  1. ↵
    1. Migliori GB,
    2. Centis R,
    3. Fattorini L,
    4. et al
    . Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex drug resistance in Italy. Emerg Infect Dis 2004; 10: 752–753.
    OpenUrlPubMed
  2. ↵
    1. Langlois-Klassen D,
    2. Wooldrage KM,
    3. Manfreda J,
    4. et al
    . Piecing the puzzle together: foreign-born tuberculosis in an immigrant-receiving country. Eur Respir J 2011; 38: 895–902.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  3. ↵
    Ministerio della alute. La tuberculosi in Italia. [Tuberculosis in Italy]. www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_pubblicazioni_1472_allegato.pdf Date last accessed: June 11, 2012. Date last updated: 2008.
  4. ↵
    1. Nathanson E,
    2. Nunn P,
    3. Uplekar M,
    4. et al
    . MDR tuberculosis – critical steps for prevention and control. N Engl J Med 2010; 363: 1050–1058.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  5. ↵
    1. Fattorini L,
    2. Migliori GB,
    3. Cassone A,
    4. et al
    . Proficiency testing of first- and second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs in Italy. Eur Respir J 2012; 39: 1263–1266.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  6. ↵
    World Health rganization. Policy Guidance on Drugs Susceptibility Testing (DST) of Second-Line Antituberculosis Drugs. WHO/HTM/TB/2008.392 Geneva, World Health Organization, 2008.
  7. ↵
    1. van Ingen J,
    2. Boeree MJ,
    3. Wright A,
    4. et al
    . Second-line drug resistance in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis cases of various origins in the Netherlands. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2008; 12: 1295–1299.
    OpenUrlPubMed
  8. ↵
    European Centre for Disease Controland PreventionWorld Health Organization. Surveillance Report: Tuberculosis surveillance in Europe 2009. www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/1103_TB_SUR_2009.pdf Date last accessed: January 20, 2012. Date last updated: 2009.
  9. ↵
    1. Villar M,
    2. Sotgiu G,
    3. D'Ambrosio L,
    4. et al
    . Linezolid safety, tolerability and efficacy to treat multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Eur Respir J 2011; 38: 730–733.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  10. ↵
    1. Pinon M,
    2. Scolfaro C,
    3. Bignamini E,
    4. et al
    . Two pediatric cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treated with linezolid and moxifloxacin. Pediatrics 2010; 126: e1253–e1256.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
View Abstract
PreviousNext
Back to top
View this article with LENS
Vol 40 Issue 2 Table of Contents
European Respiratory Journal: 40 (2)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on European Respiratory Society .

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis among foreign-born persons in Italy
(Your Name) has sent you a message from European Respiratory Society
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the European Respiratory Society web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Citation Tools
Drug-resistant tuberculosis among foreign-born persons in Italy
Lanfranco Fattorini, Alessandro Mustazzolu, Giovanni Piccaro, Manuela Pardini, Perla Filippini, Federico Giannoni, Giovanni Battista Migliori, Giovanni Sotgiu, Emanuele Borroni, Daniela Maria Cirillo, the Italian Multicentre Study on Resistance to Antituberculosis Drugs (SMIRA) Group
European Respiratory Journal Aug 2012, 40 (2) 497-500; DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00021012

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Drug-resistant tuberculosis among foreign-born persons in Italy
Lanfranco Fattorini, Alessandro Mustazzolu, Giovanni Piccaro, Manuela Pardini, Perla Filippini, Federico Giannoni, Giovanni Battista Migliori, Giovanni Sotgiu, Emanuele Borroni, Daniela Maria Cirillo, the Italian Multicentre Study on Resistance to Antituberculosis Drugs (SMIRA) Group
European Respiratory Journal Aug 2012, 40 (2) 497-500; DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00021012
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Connotea logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Full Text (PDF)

Jump To

  • Article
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Subjects

  • Respiratory infections and tuberculosis
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

More in this TOC Section

  • Predictors of treatment outcome in MDR-TB in Portugal
  • Drug concentration in lung tissue in MDR-TB
  • Obesity in COPD: the effect of water-based exercise
Show more Letters

Related Articles

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Archive

About the ERJ

  • Journal information
  • Editorial board
  • Press
  • Permissions and reprints
  • Advertising

The European Respiratory Society

  • Society home
  • myERS
  • Privacy policy
  • Accessibility

ERS publications

  • European Respiratory Journal
  • ERJ Open Research
  • European Respiratory Review
  • Breathe
  • ERS books online
  • ERS Bookshop

Help

  • Feedback

For authors

  • Instructions for authors
  • Publication ethics and malpractice
  • Submit a manuscript

For readers

  • Alerts
  • Subjects
  • Podcasts
  • RSS

Subscriptions

  • Accessing the ERS publications

Contact us

European Respiratory Society
442 Glossop Road
Sheffield S10 2PX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 114 2672860
Email: journals@ersnet.org

ISSN

Print ISSN:  0903-1936
Online ISSN: 1399-3003

Copyright © 2023 by the European Respiratory Society