Recurrent Tuberculosis and Exogenous Reinfection, Shanghai, China

Abstract

Of 52 patients with recurrent tuberculosis in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, 32 (61.5%) had isolates in which genotype patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis differed between first and second episodes. This result indicates that exogenous reinfection is common in an area with a high incidence of tuberculosis.

Keywords

• Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• tuberculosis
• recurrence
• molecular epidemiology
• DNA fingerprinting
• dispatch