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High frequency of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates in Georgetown, Guyana.

Menner N, Günther I, Orawa H, Roth A, Rambajan I, Wagner J, Hahn H, Persaud S, Ignatius R

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology of Infection, Charité- University Medicine Berlin, and Institute for Microbiology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, Hospital Zehlendorf-Heckeshorn, Berlin, Germany.

Emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates constitutes a threat to public health worldwide. This study aimed at acquiring first epidemiological data for Guyana. Thirty-six M. tuberculosis isolates from patients of the Georgetown Chest Clinic were subjected to susceptibility testing on solid agar and in broth media. Resistance to at least one first-line drug was observed in 8 (22.2%, 95% confidence interval 8.3-36.1%) and simultaneous resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid (MDR) in 4 (11.1%, 95% confidence interval 0.6-21.6%) of the 36 isolates. The risk of infection with resistant isolates was significantly related to earlier antituberculosis therapy (P=0.040). These data indicate a high proportion of resistant M. tuberculosis isolates in Guyana and call for the implementation of control strategies based on an improved laboratory diagnosis of TB.

Published 19 December 2005 in Trop Med Int Health, 10(12): 1215-8.
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