ABSTRACT
Multiresistant tuberculosis associates a reduction in the sensitivity to isoniazid, the rifampicin and possibly to the other antituberculous ones. It is in constant progression in the whole world and constitutes a major problem of public health. The multiresistance seems to be the consequence of an inadequate former treatment [acquired resistance] or of a contamination by a stock from the start multiresistant [primary resistance]. The patients infected by the virus of the AIDS are a privileged target. New biological techniques are developed in order to identify the stocks resistant to antituberculous and to implement as soon as possible an adapted antituberculous treatment. Three processes are theoretically in competition for the fast antibiogram of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: - The direct antibiogram on solid medium remains the method of choice for the measurement of the sensitivity to antibiotics of second line in the event of multiresistance. - The Bactec method allows the culture and the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 8 days, then with additional 8 days, establishes the antibiogram with isoniazid, the rifampicine, the ethambutol and the streptomycine without making it possible to establish in a reliable way, the antibiogram facing antibiotics of second line. - The technique PCR [polymerase chain reaction] amplification of a segment of the gene followed by denaturation and hybridisation has been used for rapid detection of tuberculosis resistance