Collection

Tuberculosis (TB): national strain typing service

Resources for healthcare professionals about the national TB strain typing service.

The national strain typing service involves prospectively typing TB isolates using 24 loci mycobacterial interspersed repeat units - variable number tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR). The results of this are used in local or national investigation of suspected TB transmission incidents.

TB strain typing results combined with epidemiological data can:

  • help identify TB patients potentially involved in the same chain of recent TB transmission
  • assist in initiating timely and appropriate control measures following cluster and outbreak investigations
  • provide an opportunity to better understand the epidemiology of TB in a given setting

Using the service

Cluster investigation

Strain typing module

National strain typing service evaluation

Data analysis

Published 23 January 2014