J.L. de Beer

TL;DR: This first multicenter study has documented the worldwide quality of VNTR typing of MTBC strains and highlights the importance of international quality control to improve genotyping in the future.

TL;DR: It is concluded that international transmission of MDR-/XDR-TB plays an important role in the EU, especially in the eastern part, and is significantly related to the spread of one strain or clone of the Beijing genotype.

TL;DR: The population structure of 3,776 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates was determined using variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) typing because the degree of clonality was so high that a more relaxed definition of clustering cannot be applied.

TL;DR: This second worldwide proficiency study indicates a substantial increase in the reproducibility of VNTR typing of M. tuberculosis, which will contribute to a more meaningful interpretation of molecular epidemiological and phylogenetic studies on the M.culosis complex.

TL;DR: These are the first genotypic drug resistance data from Jayapura, Papua, showing moderate rates of resistance to first-line drugs and likely transmission of drug-resistant TB.