A snapshot on the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in western Sicily

(MTB) strains isolated in 1994-1998 in Palermo, Italy, showed that 87.4% of the patients were likely to be infected by unrelated isolates, reactivation largely exceeding recent infection. In the last 10 years striking demographic and sociological changes have occurred, such as an increasing immigration and the growing elderly population. Sicily, in particular, has been recently affected by large waves of immigration from Africa and immigration from eastern European countries is also increasing. A follow-up study on the molecular epidemiology of TB 10 years later was performed.