Abstract
Objective: To determine the sensitivity pattern of first line anti-tuberculosis drugs against clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in our settings. Place and duration: Department of Microbiology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from January 2010 through December 2012. Materials & Methods: Samples received during the study period were processed on MGIT 960 system for MTB culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) was performed for first line antituberculosis drugs, namely rifampicin (RIF), isoniazid (INH), streptomycin (STR) and ethambutol (ETH). MTB ATCC 25177 was used as control strain. Results: A total of 4050 samples were tested on MGIT 960 System, out of which 689(17%) were culture positive. Out of these culture positive cases, 303(44%) were pansensitive, 52(7.5%) pan-resistant, 84(12.2%) sensitive to one drug only, 171(24.8%) resistant to one drug only and 49(7.1%) were resistant to 2 drugs other than MDR. 132(19.16%) cases were multidrug resistant (MDR). Conclusion: Resistance to first line anti-tuberculosis drugs is alarming. Our results highlight the importance of drug susceptibility testing of MTB isolates against first line anti-tuberculosis drugs in an endemic country, so as to properly manage tuberculosis patients.
Highlights
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a dreadful infectious disease despite all the advancements in medicine
Materials & Methods: Samples received during the study period were processed on MGIT 960 system for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) was performed for first line antituberculosis drugs, namely rifampicin (RIF), isoniazid (INH), streptomycin (STR) and ethambutol (ETH)
Adding fuel to the fire is the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) TB, which poses a major threat to treatment as resistant cases have a high mortality rate.[1]
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a dreadful infectious disease despite all the advancements in medicine. Most of the high burden TB countries do not have the recommended capacity of one laboratory per 5 million populations to perform culture and DST.3To ensure the accurate detection of drug resistance for subsequent treatment decisions and to avoid false diagnosis, quality-assured DST is critical. This laboratory based study was aimed to determine the sensitivity pattern of MTB against first line anti-TB drugs in our setup; a continuation of the previous studies for updating time to time local MTB drug resistance trends for guiding clinicians
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