Tuberculosis across the seas: CPLP-TB - a joint effort in cataloguing mycobacterium tuberculosis genetic diversity in the lusophone space

The Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) comprises nine countries across four continents, accounting for 7.2% of the world’s land area, and where tuberculosis (TB) is still a cause of public health concern. A marked variation in TB incidence (23 to 551 cases per 100000 habitants) can be observed across the different member-states and, despite of this, a considerable gap in the knowledge on the Mycobacterium tuberculosispopulation structure and country-level geospatial distribution still exists.To address this we have gathered a comprehensive set of molecular and phenotypic drug susceptibility data on approximately 1150 different clinical isolates, from different partners, across 5 distinct Portuguese-speaking countries. This initial dataset comprises molecular genotypic data obtained by either 12, 15 or 24-lociMycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit –Variable Number of Tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) and/or Spoligotyping.The complete dataset therefore includes M. tuberculosisclinicalisolates from Portugal (n≈370), Angola (n≈80), Guinea-Bissau (n≈13), Mozambique (n≈14) and Brazil (n≈680). To make this data available to the scientific community and public health authorities we have developed CPLP-TB, an online database coupled with web-based tools that enable exploratory data analysis. This new tool specifically directed at CPLP countries include advanced data analysis capability together with graphical visualization tools (e.g. dendrogram and choropleth mapping).As a public health tool, it is expected to contribute for a deeper knowledge on the combined population structure and strain circulation between countries, thus enabling the assessment of strain specific trends in a broader macroepidemiological context. Furthermore, this new tool provides a new framework for inter-laboratory cooperation on TB molecular epidemiology