Publication:

Outcomes of multi drug resistant tuberculosis under programmatic conditions: the experience

Background Tuberculosis is the most common cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide after HIV/AIDS. Drug resistant tuberculosis continues to be a public health crisis. India stands, one among 27 “high burden” MDR countries and has over 2 million new TB cases every year and TB kill’s nearly 1000 people every day. The WHO 2018 Global Tuberculosis Report estimated that, worldwide, approximately 3.5 percent of all new TB cases and 18 percent of previously treated cases are caused by MDR or rifampicin-mono resistant strains.

Methods Presumptive drug resistance TB cases were subjected for CBNAAT or LPA to detect resistance patterns. About 231 cases of MDR/RR TB cases after pre-treatment evaluation started on CAT- IV regimen and both interim and final outcomes were analyzed.

Results Out of 231cases 172(74.4%) were males and 59(25.6%) were females with age between 13-75yrs. Total of 194 cases culture conversion occurred out of which 28 cases the cultures were reverted back to positives. Final Outcomes were, cured in 84 (36.3%) cases, treatment completed in 42 (18.18%) cases, defaulters in 31 (13.4%) cases, turned to be XDR in 10 (4.32%) cases, treatment failure in 10 (4.32%) cases, 50 (21.6%) cases died, 3(1.29%) cases were transferred out.

Conclusions Approximately 2/3rd of MDR/RR TB cases are retreatment sputum positive cases. Successful outcome observed in 54.54% of cases only. High rates of deaths and defaulters alarm the necessity of more effective implementation and surveillance of the programme.