Rwandan researchers have discovered a new tuberculosis strain in the country. The work began in 2019, and results were published on 9 June 2020.
The new strain known as Lineage 8 (L8) was found in a Rwandan patient who later died last year from respiratory disease.
Lineage 8 was found to be the oldest strain among all the seven previous strains of tuberculosis known to date. Lineage 8 is geographically limited to the region of the Great Lakes especially in Rwanda and Uganda.
The new discovery is described as a “missing link” in the evolution of one of the oldest and most deadly pathogens in the world.
The findings were published in Nature Communications, a renowned medical research publication and is titled: A Sister Lineage of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex Discovered in the African Great Lakes Region.
The newly discovered strain is already resistant to key drugs commonly used for the treatment of Tuberculosis-Rifampicin and Isoniazid.
Lineage 8 appears to infect far fewer people than other strains and has a remarkably low spread rate from infected individuals. No additional strain of L8 has been identified despite massive screening by RBC researchers.
The fact that the contagious level of Lineage 8 is the lowest relative to other lineages gives medical researchers hope of finding a vaccine.
Jean-Claude Semuto Ngabonziza, who led the Rwanda Biomedical Center study, suggests that prolonged study into the new strain will result in a vaccine.
“Lineage 8 does not spread like previous ones. Since it is the oldest, if we find out why it does not spread and resist modern drugs, it would lead us to the long-awaited vaccine,” he said.
Tuberculosis is one of the oldest pathogens affecting humans. This has many separate ‘lineages’ strains.
The first six lines have been known for more than a decade and the seventh was discovered five years ago in Ethiopia adding to the latest 8th lineage.
Semuto says in coming years more strains could be discovered.