Smear positive tuberculosis and genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis isolates in individuals visiting health facilities in South Gondar Zone, northwest Ethiopia
BackgroundTuberculosis (TB), a bacterial infectious disease, persisted to be a public health concern in many developing countries. However, lack of enough data concerning the public health burden and potential risk factors for the disease hampered control programs in target areas. Therefore, the present study aimed in determining the prevalence of TB and genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis isolates in South Gondar Zone, northwest Ethiopia.\n\nMethodsA cross-sectonal study was conducte between March 2015 and April 2017. Bacteriological examination, region of difference (RD) 9 based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and spoligotyping were used to undertake the study.\n\nResultsThe overall prevalence of smear positive all forms TB was 6.3% (186/2953). Extra pulmonary TB (EPTB) was clinically characterized on about 62.4% (116/186) TB-positive cases. Some of the patients demographic characteristics such as [patients origin (chi-square ({chi}2) value; 62.8, p<0.001) were found to be significantly associated risk factors for the occurrence of TB in the study area. All the mycobacterial isolates were found to be M. tuberculosis. Among the 35 different spoligotype patterns identified, 22 patterns were shared types. The three dominantly identified families were T, CAS and Manu, each consisting of 46.9%, 24.0% and 10.4% of the isolates, respectively\n\nConclusionThe presented study revealed that TB continued to be a public health problem in South Gondar Zone which suggests a need of implementing effective disease control strategies.