Anti-Tuberculosis Therapy in The Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Patients of Kashmir Valley

Abstract

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) strains are a significant threat to global TB control. Due to a lack of resources and inadequate healthcare infrastructure, it is difficult to identify and monitor drug resistance situations in low and middle-income nations. The study aimed to evaluate the anti-tuberculosis therapy regimen in drug-resistant tuberculosis patients of the mountainous valley of Kashmir. The current study was carried out at Government Medical College, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Chest Diseases Hospital (CDH), Srinagar, Kashmir. A total of 1100 suspected tuberculosis subjects were included in the study, and out of 1100 TB subjects, 195 were documented medication resistance cases. Of the total 1100 Line Probe Assay (LPA) tests done, 69 (6.2%) such samples in the Tuberculosis band were absent. Of the real samples tested by LPA, Tuberculosis band (TUB) was present in 1031 samples (93.7%), of which 24 (2.3%) were multidrugresistant (MDR), 121 (11.7%) were rifampicin mono-resistant, 42 (4.0%) were isoniazid mono-resistant, 8 (0.77%) were extensively drugresistant (XDR), and 836 (81%) samples were pan-sensitive. Smoking remained an independent risk factor for poor treatment outcomes in the multivariate analysis (p-value = 0.014, OR = 4.356, 95% CI [1.425�12.45]). This study found a low incidence of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB). Most of the cases were resistant to first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs. Special attention should be paid to high-risk DR-TB patients to improve treatment results even further. Further studies are recommended with a large sample size.