TABLE 5.

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.