Background: Recurrent tuberculosis is a major health burden and may be due to relapse with the original strain or reinfection with a new strain.
Methods: In a population-based study in northern Malawi, patients with tuberculosis diagnosed from 1996 to 2010 were actively followed after the end of treatment. Whole-genome sequencing with approximately 100-fold coverage was performed on all available cultures. Results of IS6110 restriction fragment-length polymorphism analyses were available for cultures performed up to 2008.
Results: Based on our data, a difference of ≤10 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was used to define relapse, and a difference of >100 SNPs was used to define reinfection. There was no evidence of mixed infections among those classified as reinfections. Of 1471 patients, 139 had laboratory-confirmed recurrences: 55 had relapse, and 20 had reinfection; for 64 type of recurrence was unclassified. Almost all relapses occurred in the first 2 years. Human immunodeficiency virus infection was associated with reinfection but not relapse. Relapses were associated with isoniazid resistance, treatment before 2007, and lineage-3 strains. We identified several gene variants associated with relapse. Lineage-2 (Beijing) was overrepresented and lineage-1 underrepresented among the reinfecting strains (P = .004).
Conclusions: While some of the factors determining recurrence depend on the patient and their treatment, differences in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome appear to have a role in both relapse and reinfection.
Keywords: HIV; RFLP; recurrence; reinfection; relapse; tuberculosis; whole-genome sequence.
© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.