- Baker, Chelsea R;
- Barilar, Ivan;
- de Araujo, Leonardo S;
- Rimoin, Anne W;
- Parker, Daniel M;
- Boyd, Rosanna;
- Tobias, James L;
- Moonan, Patrick K;
- Click, Eleanor S;
- Finlay, Alyssa;
- Oeltmann, John E;
- Minin, Vladimir N;
- Modongo, Chawangwa;
- Zetola, Nicola M;
- Niemann, Stefan;
- Shin, Sanghyuk S
Combining genomic and geospatial data can be useful for understanding Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission in high-burden tuberculosis (TB) settings. We performed whole-genome sequencing on M. tuberculosis DNA extracted from sputum cultures from a population-based TB study conducted in Gaborone, Botswana, during 2012-2016. We determined spatial distribution of cases on the basis of shared genotypes among isolates. We considered clusters of isolates with ≤5 single-nucleotide polymorphisms identified by whole-genome sequencing to indicate recent transmission and clusters of ≥10 persons to be outbreaks. We obtained both molecular and geospatial data for 946/1,449 (65%) participants with culture-confirmed TB; 62 persons belonged to 5 outbreaks of 10-19 persons each. We detected geospatial clustering in just 2 of those 5 outbreaks, suggesting heterogeneous spatial patterns. Our findings indicate that targeted interventions applied in smaller geographic areas of high-burden TB identified using integrated genomic and geospatial data might help interrupt TB transmission during outbreaks.