RESUMO
Multi-drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a global problem and has increased especially in areas where tuberculosis control programmes are inefficient. The aim of this study was to detect the resistance rates against isoniazide (INH), rifampisin (RMP), ethambutol (EMB) and streptomycin (SM) in M. tuberculosis strains collected from 7 different regions including 62 cities and sent to Refik Saydam Hygiene Center National Tuberculosis Reference and Research Laboratory. Of the patients included, 7.61% were children, 92.39% were adults; 76.16% were male and 23.84% were female. These strains were isolated from sputum (n = 885, 81.11%), gastric lavage (n = 49, 4.49%), pleural fluid (n = 43, 3.94%), urine (n = 30, 2.74%), bronchoalveolar lavage (n = 22, 2.01%), and other clinical samples (n = 62, 8.46%) such as cerebrospinal fluid, lymph node, abscess material, lung tissue. The susceptibilities of the 1091 M. tuberculosis strains against the major anti-tuberculosis drugs were determined by the proportion method in Lowenstein-Jensen medium. Three hundred ninety two of the isolates were from Central Anatolia, 146 from Black Sea, 419 from Aegean, 28 from Mediterranean, 20 from Marmara, 64 from Eastern Anatolia and 21 from South Eastern Anatolia regions of Turkey. The distribution of the strains according to years were as follows: 88 in 2003, 114 in 2004, 341 in 2005 and 548 in 2006. Resistance to at least one of the drugs tested was found in 264 (14.20%) strains. Overall drug resistance rates to INH, RMP, EMB and SM were 12.3%, 10.1%, 6% and 15.8%, respectively. MDR-TB rate was 10% for this 4 years study period. MDR-TB rate was detected as 13.2%, 9.7%, 10.1% and 9.6% in children, adult, male and female patients, respectively. MDR-TB rate did not exhibit a statistically significant difference in terms of sex, age and study years (p > 0.05). However, this rate showed statistically significant difference in terms of geographical regions (p < 0.05). This study emphasized that regular surveillance of M. tuberculosis resistance to the major anti-tuberculosis drugs will provide valuable data for the effective national control and treatment of tuberculosis.
