Prevalence of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Adults at University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by There were 14.4 million individuals worldwide living with TB including half a million cases of Multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB in 2006. A most serious aspect of the problem has been the emergence of MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB.MDR-TB is defined as a strain of that is resistant to at least Isoniazid and Rifampicin whether there is resistance to other drugs or not. XDR-TB is defined as resistance to at least rifampicin, isoniazid, a second line injectable drug(capreomycin, kanamycin or amikacin) and a fluoroquinolone. China, India and the Russian Federation are thought to carry the largest MDR-TB global caseload. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there were 66,700 MDR-TB cases in Africa in 2006. In 2005 approximately 50 cases were reported as having MDR-TB in Zambia.Treatment of MDR-TB requires prolonged and expensive chemotherapy.The main objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with MDR-TB among adults with TB at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. Specific objectives were to describe the demographic characteristic of patients presenting with MDR-TB, determine the proportion of MDR-TB cases among TB culture-positive patients, and to determine the association between HIV/AIDS, previous TB treatment and compliance on one hand and MDR-TB on the other.A cross-sectional study was conducted in UTH TB Laboratory in among culture-positive TB patients. Facility TB records and databases for isolates which were cultured and had drug-sensitivity testing performed against four first-line anti-TB drugs were studied retrospectively. All the records and databases available between 2003 and 2008 were reviewed. The results have been presented in graphical and tabular form. The proportion of MDR-TB among the TB culture-positive patients was 10.9%. The association between age and MDR-TB was not statistically significant. The observed proportions of females between positive and negative were statistically different. There was no significant association between employment status and MDR-TB. There was an association between HIV/AIDS and MDR-TB. There was an association between compliance and MDR-TB. We conclude that there is need for continuous monitoring of MDR-TB and XDR-TB.