Phylogenetic Analysis for the Origin of Typhoid Fever Outbreak on Jeju Island, Korea, in 2017

Abstract

In June 2017, on Jeju Island, six patients were diagnosed with typhoid fever. All six patients were admitted to our hospital with fever, all of them had been working at the same hotel. The gyrA and gyrB genes of four out of six Salmonella typhi cases were amplified by polymerase chain reaction. The phylogenetic tree of the genes showed that the S. Typhi isolates from Jeju Island in 2017 had the same genotype and were similar to isolates from the United Kingdom. The origin of the isolates of the outbreak was the same, and the disease strain may have been imported from outside of Korea.