Utility of molecular epidemiology (ME) for the identification of paediatric tuberculosis (TB) source cases
| Characteristic | Total# | Source case identified by CE | No source case identified by CE | ||
| Subtotal | Identified by ME | Subtotal | Identified by ME¶ | ||
| Cases | 78 | 35 | 34 (97) | 43 | 6 (14) |
| Age years | |||||
| <5 | 25 | 11 | 11 (100) | 14 | 4 (29) |
| 5–14 | 53 | 24 | 23 (96) | 29 | 2 (7) |
| Sex | |||||
| Female | 47 | 20 | 19 (95) | 27 | 3 (11) |
| Male | 31 | 15 | 15 (100) | 16 | 3 (19) |
| Population group | |||||
| CBO | 22 | 12 | 11 (92) | 10 | 4 (40) |
| RFN | 22 | 20 | 20 (100) | 2 | 1 (50) |
| FB | 34 | 3 | 3 (100) | 31 | 1 (3) |
| Method of detection | |||||
| Symptoms | 39 | 4 | 4 (100) | 35 | 6 (17) |
| Contact tracing | 32 | 31 | 30 (97) | 1 | 0 (0) |
| Other screening+ | 7 | 0 | 0 (0) | 7 | 0 (0) |
Data are presented as n or n (%), unless otherwise stated. CE: conventional epidemiology; CBO: Canadian-born “other”; RFN: registered First Nations; FB: foreign born. #: total culture-positive cases; ¶: odds ratios of paediatric TB cases with source cases identified by ME only versus paediatric TB cases without source cases identified by ME or CE for various characteristics are as follows: age 5–14 years (0.1852 (95% CI 0.03–1.17)); male sex (1.8462 (95% CI 0.33–10.49)); FB population group (0.0467 (95% CI 0.005–0.47)); detection by symptoms (3.7458 (95% CI 0.19–73.45)). +: other screening includes immigration medical evaluations, international adoptee screening and incidental findings.