This study was designed to determine the extent of drug resistance of M. tuberculosis (MTB) isolated from category II treatment failure pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients. A total of 100 Ziehl-Neelsen (Z-N) smear positive category II failure PTB patients were included in this study. Sputum culture was done in Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) media. Conventional proportion method on Lowenstein-Jensen (L-J) media was used to determine the drug susceptibility of M. tuberculosis to isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP), ofloxacin (OFX) and kanamycin (KA). Out of 100 sputum samples, a total of 87 samples were positive by culture. Drug susceptibility test (DST) revealed that 82 (94.25%) isolates were resistant to one or more anti -TB drugs. Resistance to isoniazide (INH), rifampicin (RMP), ofloxacin (OFX) and kanamycin (KA) was 94.25%, 82.75%, 29.90% and 3.45% respectively. Among these isolates, 79.31% and 3.45% isolates were multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extended drug resistant (XDR) M. tuberculosis respectively.  High rate of anti-tubercular drug resistance was observed among the category II treatment failure TB patients.

Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2013; 7(1): 9-11

Key Words: MDR-TB, XDR-TB, Category II treatment failure tuberculosis.

Address for Correspondence: Dr. Fahmida Rahman, M.Phil., Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, Ibrahim Medical College, Email: [email protected]