Shifts in mycobacterial populations and emerging drug-resistance in west and central Africa

In this study, we retrospectively analysed a total of 605 clinical isolates from six West or Central African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea-Conakry, Niger and Senegal). Besides spoligotyping to assign isolates to ancient and modern mycobacterial lineages, we conducted phenotypic drug-susceptibility-testing for each isolate for the four first-line drugs. We showed that phylogenetically modern Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains are more likely associated with drug resistance than ancient strains and predict that the currently ongoing replacement of the endemic ancient by a modern mycobacterial population in West/Central Africa might result in increased drug resistance in the sub-region.