Distribution of strain families of Mycobacterium tuberculosis causing pulmonary and extrapulmonary disease in hospitalized children in Cape Town, South Africa

We studied the association between strain family and extrapulmonary tuberculosis among 285 children presenting to a pediatric hospital. Extrapulmonary disease occurred in 56% of children without known human immunodeficiency virus infection, with meningitis accounting for 22% of the cases. Two strain families, LAM3/F11 and W-Beijing, predominated; but there was no overall association with extrapulmonary disease. Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.