Drug resistance among tuberculosis patients attending diagnostic and treatment centres in Makassar, Indonesia

-SETTING: Government tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic and treatment centres, Makassar, Indonesia. OBJECTIVE: To determine the proportions and patterns of resistance to commonly used TB drug* (isoniazid |INHJ,rifampicin, crhnmhutol and trrepromycin) among pulmonary TB patients anil assess potential risk factors for drug resistance.\ud DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.\ud RESULTS: Of 657 recruited patients, 234 were culrurc- positive. Drug susceptibility testing (DST) results were available for 216 patients. Among these, 197 were in??fected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (145 new and 52 previously treated). Isolates from 89 new (61.4%) and 31 previously treated (59.6%) patients were susceptible to all four drugs. Resistance to IN'H was high among both patient groups (28.3% of new vs. 34.6% of previously treated). Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) eases accountcd for respectively 4.1% and 192% of these patients. Resistance to >2 drugs was high among previ??ously treated patients (19.2%). M1)R TB cases were more likely to have a history of excess alcohol use (ad- lusted OR 4.01, 95%CI 1.28-12.>3) and previous TB treatment (adjusted OR 6.28,95%CI 2.01-19.64). CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of previous treatment his??tory, many culture-positive TB patients were infected with INH-resistant isolates, and a significant proportion of previously treated patients were infected with MDR- TB. Treating culturc-posirivc TB patients, especially previously treated patients, based on DST results should therefore be considered.\ud KEY WORDS: tuberculosis; drug-resistant TB; MDR- TB; Makassar: Indonesia\ud mycin (S, SM) injections during the first 2 months; HUE is the