Abstract
Several molecular typing methods are available to assist public health practitioners in identifying clusters
of recently acquired tuberculosis cases. Molecular typing or fingerprinting investigates variations in microbial populations, defines specific clones and identifies outbreaks by matching molecular fingerprints of epidemiologically linked isolates. The combination of
two or more methods, with different preselected genomic loci in the genome, have been used to identify and track outbreaks, define high-risk groups and target prevention strategies.Table 1 compares three current typing methods.
