First case of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis caused by a rare “Beijing-like” genotype of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Bogotá, Colombia

This report describes a first case due to a genetically distinct and relatively rare “Beijing-like” strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from a 15 years old female patient who died shortly after the initiation of antituberculous therapy with second-line drugs. Positive cultures obtained from lung, kidney and adrenal glands upon autopsy were identified as Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex characterized by an identical 15-banded IS6110-RFLP pattern, and were found to be resistant to all the 4 first-line antituberculous drugs tested (rifampin, isoniazid, ethambutol and streptomycin). Spoligotyping followed by comparison with the SITVIT2 database revealed that the isolate belonged to a rare pattern identified as Spoligotype International Type SIT190, which represents only 1.7% of all the Beijing strains worldwide. We present data on its worldwide distribution and present an evolutionary scenario based on available MIRU typing data.