Abstract

The emergence and spread of multidrug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR) has raised public health concern about global control of TB. Our objective was to estimate the incidence of XDR-TB as compared to susceptible controls from TB patients in Tehran-Iran between 2006 and 2009.Sputum culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) was done for patients with known or suspected TB. The strains that were identified as MDR were subjected to susceptibility testing for second-line drugs. Of 1126 culture-positive cases with first line drug susceptibility test, 91(8.08%) were Non-tuberculosis (Atypical) isolates, 8(0.7%) M. bovis and 1027(91.2%) M. tuberculosis. We detected MDR-TB in 26 patients (2.5%), of whom 2(7.7%) had XDR-TB. One of the XDR-TB patients with positive HIV infection died. This study cannot give an indication of XDR-TB rates in Iran. However, the results of this study document the existence of XDR-TB in Iran and indicate a need for surveillance data to define the magnitude and trends of this serious, contagious disease.

Key words: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB), tuberculosis.