Distribution of tuberculosis cases reported to health authorities in Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana, 1994-96, by nationality. DomR = Dominican Republic; Dom = Commonwealth of Dominica.

Nomenclature of the spoligotype database (from 1 to 69) based on published spoligotypes (n = 393) and on spoligotypes generated during this investigation (n = 218). The corresponding hybridization patterns for oligonucleotides 1 to 43 (black square, hybridizing; empty square, nonhybridizing) are shown. Type 1 is unique for the Beijing type pattern, whereas type 69 is unique for the Manila type pattern. Bold characters illustrate patterns that have so far been noticed only in Caribbean and neighboring Central American isolates (specific types). Unbolded characters illustrate patterns common to those reported elsewhere (ubiquitous types), whereas italicized characters with an asterisk illustrates patterns not yet found in the Caribbean. BCG and H37Rv spoligotypes are shown as controls.

A dendrogram represents spoligotyping results of 95 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from Guadeloupe (shared patterns are shown by bold characters). From top to bottom; type 53, ubiquitous; type 44, described by Goguet et al. (two cases) ; type 54, which does not appear, is found only in isolate 94142, a pattern also found in French Guiana; type 37, which also does not appear, described by Kamerbeek et al. (three cases) ; type 50, ubiquitous; type 63, specific; type 61, which does not appear is found only in isolate 96131, a pattern also found in Barbados and French Guiana; type 51, described by Goguet et al. (one case) ; isolate 96095, a M. bovis BCG clinical isolate; types 12 to 14, specific types; type 5, which does not appear, is found only in isolate 95068, a pattern also found in Martinique; type 31, which does not appear, is found only in isolate 94112, a pattern also found in French Guiana and already reported by Goguet et al. (two cases) ; type 46, which does not appear, is found only in isolate 95087, a pattern also found in Martinique and was already reported ; type 17, specific; type 30, specific; types 45 and 15, which do not appear, are found only for isolates 96129 and 94127, respectively, and share patterns with isolates in Martinique and Surinam; type 29, specific; type 2, previously reported by Goguet et al. (one case) ; type 3, also found in Surinam, has been described by Kamerbeek et al. (one case) ; type 1, which does not appear, is found only in 95076, a pattern also found in Surinam, and described as the Beijing type.

A dendrogram illustrating spoligotyping results of 76 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from French Guiana (shared patterns are shown in bold). Top to bottom; patterns 50 and 53, ubiquitous; types 54 and 36, which do not appear, are found only for isolates IPC99 and IPC57, respectively; type 34, a ubiquitous type that was limited to French Guiana in this study; types 66 and 67, specific; type 42, ubiquitous; type 17, specific; type 33, ubiquitous; type 51, ubiquitous; type 31, which does not appear, is found only for isolate IPC23 and is shared with 94112 in Guadeloupe; type 2, shared by four isolates in Guadeloupe.

A dendrogram illustrating 31 spoligotyping results of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from Martinique. From top to bottom, types 50 and 53, ubiquitous; types 52 and 49 are represented by a single isolate, respectively, M35 and M30, and are ubiquitous; isolates M10 and M7 belong to specific types 17 and 68, respectively found in Guadeloupe and Barbados; M25, belongs to specific type 5 observed in Guadeloupe; type 45, ubiquitous; type 46, ubiquitous; isolate M23 shares type 2, with isolates in Guadeloupe and French Guiana.

A dendrogram illustrating spoligotyping results of 16 Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates from Barbados and Surinam. From top: type 53, ubiquitous; isolates Barb.3 and 94030 belong to specific types 68 and 15, respectively; isolates 94018, 94020, 94034, and Barb.1 belong to ubiquitous types 19, 1, 3, and 61, respectively.

A cumulative dendrogram for the 218 Caribbean isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. New types not visible on individual dendrograms can now be observed (types 1, 5, 15, 31, 54, 61, 64, and 68).

A preliminary phylogenetic tree obtained by the neighbor-joining algorithm on the basis of the 1-Jaccard index (Sj=a/a+c, where a is the number of simultaneously positive characters and c is the number of discrepancies), which is not exhaustive for all existing phylogenetic links. A total of 70 shared spoligotypes were analyzed (69 types shown in and Mycobacterium bovis BCG).