First national survey results of mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance in Kosovo, 2007-2008

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of DR to the first–line anti TB drug among new and previously treated cases of pulmonary tuberculosis. Method: A national survey during 2007-2008 has been carried out, using “100% sampling” method, according to WHO and IUTALD standards. Smear-positive pulmonary TB patients aged ≥15 years were eligible. Drug susceptibility testing using simple proportion method was performed against four first-line drugs, i.e., isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and streptomycin. Results: During one year enrolling period, 207 initial isolates of M Tuberculosis were analyzed. Out of them 172 (83%) were from new cases and 35 (17%) from re-treatment cases. Any resistance among new cases was 20.9% and 45.7% among re-treatment cases. Resistance to INH was 0.6% among new cases and 5.8% among re-treatment cases. MDR-TB was 0% among new cases and 11.5% among re-treatment cases. All MDR-TB cases were distributed among re-treatment cases. Conclusion: Low rates of MDR-TB in Kosovo are due to a well performing national TB control program.