Drug resistance among new smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases in Thailand.

SETTING

A 1200-bed hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.

OBJECTIVE

To describe pre-treatment drug susceptibility patterns and determine factors predicting drug resistance in new sputum-smear positive tuberculosis (TB) patients in Thailand.

DESIGN

In a retrospective cohort study from October 2007 to September 2010, clinical data on all new sputum-smear positive pulmonary TB (PTB) patients were reviewed. The pre-treatment drug susceptibility patterns and statistically significant differences in variables between groups of patients were described.

RESULTS

A total of 769 new smear-positive PTB patients were included in the study. Overall rates of pre-treatment isoniazid resistance and multidrug-resistant TB were respectively 11.8% and 2.5%. TB patients co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had a four times greater risk of pre-treatment drug resistance than non-HIV-infected patients. No other groups of patients that needed to be prioritised for drug susceptibility testing (DST) were identified.

CONCLUSION

Groups of patients to be prioritised for DST other than those with HIV infection could not be identified.