Treatment of Mycobacterium bovis infected tuberculosis patients: San Diego County, California, United States, 1994-2003.

SETTING

A local tuberculosis control program.

OBJECTIVE

To examine treatment completion rates of patients with Mycobacterium bovis disease and compare them with those of patients with M. tuberculosis disease.

DESIGN

Retrospective review of data from a tuberculosis surveillance computer database.

RESULTS

Data from 167 M. bovis patients and 928 M. tuberculosis patients were examined. Rates of treatment completion were not significantly different (78% vs. 82%, chi2 = 1.60, P = 0.174), although death was more frequent among M. bovis patients (15% vs. 7%). The median time to treatment completion was 94 days longer for M. bovis patients.

CONCLUSION

Overall, treatment completion rates of M. bovis and M. tuberculosis patients were comparable, although the death rate was higher for M. bovis patients. The latter finding may be related to a particularly high death rate among HIV-infected M. bovis patients. Therapy duration was longer for M. bovis patients, probably because resistance to pyrazinamide prevented the use of a short-course (6-month) regimen.