MIRU: the national tuberculosis genotyping strategy in Australia

Abstract

Tuberculosis remains a low prevalence disease in Australia, with approximately 800 new bacteriologically confirmed cases detected each year. In Australia, this low incidence rate corresponds to less than five cases per 100,000 population. The highest incidence occurs in migrants from high prevalence countries followed by indigenous Australian-born people. Among non-indigenous Australians, tuberculosis most often occurs among elderly males, largely due to re-activation of latent tuberculosis.