Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing – prevalence, diagnostics and treatment

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) is a widespread bacterium which usually attacks the lungs causing tuberculous pneumonia, but it can also occupy any other part of our body. One of the MT strains discovered in 1995 in China, known as the Beijing type, is extremely dangerous because of its increased antibiotic resistance. The most efficient method to properly identify this strain is genotyping which is based on the analysis of the MT genome. Symptoms of tuberculosis caused by the Beijing type may be similar to normal MT strain; however, there are some discrepancies. The most significant step in the diagnostic process is to determine the range of antibiotic resistance. These strains usually show a multi-drug resistant or extremely drug resistant phenotype.