Primary Drug Resistant Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Tertiary Care Center

Introduction : Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a major problem worldwide & is a crucial issue in the control of Tuberculosis. This study is the analysis on the drug resistance profile of M. tuberculosis isolated from patients newly diagnosed with pulmonary TB. Methods: All new cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis were subjected to sputum smear examination and sputum culture for AFB followed by drug-susceptibility testing by proportion method. Results: Resistance to any drug was seen in 17.49% and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis(MDR-TB) was observed in 3.28%.Primary drug re­sistance to Isoniazid, Streptomycin Rifampicin and ethambutol was 13.66%, 8.74%, 4.92% and 2.73% respectively. Conclusions: This study suggests that all newly diagnosed cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, with AFB smear negativity should also be subjected for AFB culture so as to ascertain active disease. There is a need of continuous monitoring of drug resistance trends, in order to assess the efficacy of current interventions and their impact on the TB epidemic.