Mycobacterium africanum (Lineage 6) shows slower sputum smear conversion on tuberculosis treatment than Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Lineage 4) in Bamako, Mali Institute of Tropical Medicine University of Antwerp
OBJECTIVE: Ancestral M. tuberculosis complex lineages such as M. africanum are underrepresented among retreatment patients and those with drug resistance. To test the hypothesis that they respond faster to TB treatment, we determined the rate of smear conversion of new pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Bamako, Mali by the main MTBc lineages.
METHODS: Between 2015 and 2017, we conducted a prospective cohort study of new smear positive ...