Biomedical Research

Objective: This study aims to explore drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) and its trend in Nantong.

Methods: From January 2012 to December 2016, a total number of 1100 TB strains were collected from 1100 patients. To determine their drug resistant characteristics, all strains were treated with antituberculosis drugs, including Ethambutol (EMB), Li Fuping (RFP), Isoniazid (INH) and Streptomycin (SM). Afterwards, the distribution of drug resistant strains in patients was analysed and the trend was profiled.

Results: Among those 1100 strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 68 strains were identified as drug resistant, including 50 single-drug resistant strains and 18 multi-drug resistant strains; 23 strains were primary drug-resistant and 45 strains were acquired drug-resistant. The positive rate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was 5.5% in 2012, 6.0% in 2013, 8.4% in 2014, and 7.3% in 2015 and 2.9% in 2016. As to specific drug sensitivity, 6 strains resistant to EMB, 10 strains resistant to RFP, 15 resistant to INH, 19 resistant to SM and 18 resistant to multiple drugs with the strains resistant to SM ranking the highest and the strains resistant to EMB the lowest. The drug resistant strains were related to 32 patients in youth group, 14 in middle-aged group and 22 in elder group. The rate of drug resistance in youth group is significantly higher than that of the middle-aged group and the elder group (P<0.05). In the sum of drug resistance strains there were 50 male patients and 18 female patients with the drug resistance rate of positive Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains of males significantly higher than that of females of statistical significance (P<0.05).

Conclusion: The drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nantong area is high and more attention should be paid in this regard.

Author(s): Junlin Chen, Fei Huang, Mei Qu, Delin Gu
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