High transmissibility of the modern Beijing Mycobacterium tuberculosis in homeless patients of Japan

SummaryA population-based study of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from homeless tuberculosis patients was performed during 2002–2004 in Osaka City, Japan. The data show that the ancient Beijing subfamily was predominant, whereas clustered isolates based on refined variable number of tandem repeats genotyping (19 loci) mainly belonged to the modern Beijing subfamily, suggesting its increased transmissibility.