Noud Hermans is a PhD candidate at the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands. For the past two years, he focused on sequencing and data analysis in tuberculosis research, with expertise in both laboratory workflows and data analysis. The presented research centers on challenges in WHO MTBC resistance catalogue-based genotypic DST, emphasizing the importance of quality control and rapid communication.
The additional grading rules inferring drug resistance were erroneously triggered because of sequencing and analysis artefacts. Our findings underline the importance of quality control of both laboratory and computer-assisted data analysis procedures, as well as the rapid communication of exceptions and adjustments to the WHO catalogue rules. Indeed, the second edition of the mutation catalogue already acknowledged the rpoB exception and the third edition is due to include the fbiC exception. The latter issue has already been addressed in v6.3.0 of TB Profiler, an open source tool for genotypic DST using the second edition of the WHO mutation catalogue.
Source: Conference 2024