Prevalence of primary drug resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid in newly diagnosed sputum smear positive pulmonary Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT

Background: To determine the prevalence of primary drug resistance to either rifampicin or isoniazid alone or both in newly diagnosed sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients.Method: A prospective study 100 newly diagnosed sputum smear positive pulmonary TB patients was conducted. The patients with an age of ≥15 years and who had either not taken anti TB treatment or who had taken ATT for less than 1 month were enrolled in this study. Two sputum samples (5ml each), including one early morning sample as per the RNTCP guidelines were collected and subjected to line probe assay (LPA).Results: Out of 100 cases 6 were having resistance to both rifampicin and isoniazid, 9 has resistance to INH alone and 1 had resistance to rifampicin alone.Conclusion: The prevalence of primary drug resistance is high. For early and rapid detection of DR-TB newer modality should be used  for the detection of primary drug resistance in sputum smear positive TB patients.