RESEARCH ARTICLE The Burden of MDR/XDR Tuberculosis in Coastal Plains Population of China

Background We conducted a first baseline survey in Jilin Province of China to determine the proportion of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), and to analyze risk factors associated with the emer-gence of drug-resistance. Methodology/Principal Findings Thirty counties in Jilin Province were randomly selected as survey sites using a stratified cluster sampling method. People enrolled in the survey were new and re-treated, smear-positive pulmonary TB patients newly enrolled in local TB control and prevention institutions during the survey period. Sputum samples were collected, and the susceptibility of bacterial strains to anti-TB drugs was analyzed by proportion method. Based on the survey results, we estimated the number of drug-resistant TB patients and analyzed the risk factors associ-ated with the emergence of drug resistance. Of 1,174 new TB patients and 597 re-treated TB patients, 8.6 % and 23.2 % were multi-drug resistant (MDR)-TB patients, respectively. Approximately 12 % of MDR-TB patients were extensively drug-resistant. We estimate tha