Tuberc Respir Dis.  2010 Mar;68(3):146-154. 10.4046/trd.2010.68.3.146.

The Recent Status of Multidrug- and Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Korea

• Kim SY
• Kim HJ
• Kim CK
• Yoon HR
• Bae HG
• Lee SH
• Sung N
• Kim DY
• Lee GY
• Cho YS
• Lee SD
• Kim WS
• Kim DS
• Shim TS

• KMID: 1728959
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.2010.68.3.146

Abstract

BACKGROUND
The increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has become a serious worldwide problem. However, there is insufficient data regarding the current status of MDR-TB and XDR-TB in Korea. This study examined the recent status of MDR- and XDR-TB using the data from 7 laboratories, in which almost all drug susceptibility tests (DST) for Mycobacterium tuberculosis were performed.
METHODS
The patients' identification data and DST results were collected from all 7 laboratories from 2001 to 2006 and the number of patients with MDR-TB and XDR-TB were calculated.
RESULTS
The number of DSTs was 140,638 for 6 years with an increasing incidence each year (p<0.001). The number of DST with MDR results was 18,510 and personal identifying information was obtained in 16,640 (89.9%) tests. The number of MDR-TB patients from 2001 to 2006 was 2,329, 2,496, 2,374, 2,300, 2,354, and 2,178, respectively, when counting the duplications in a year as one patient. The number of MDR-TB patients when counting the duplications in 6 years as one patient was 2,281, 1,977, 1,620, 1,446, 1,512, and 1,373, respectively. When the same method was adopted, the number of XDR-TB patients was 191, 238, 282, 260, 272, and 264, respectively, and 189, 150, 130, 90, 122, and 110 patients, respectively.
CONCLUSION
Despite the national efforts to control TB, there are still a large number of MDR- and XDR-TB patients in Korea.

Keyword

Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant; Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Korea

MeSH Terms

Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Humans
Incidence
Korea
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant

Figure

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  Figure 1 The number of MDR-TB patients. A method: exclusion of the patients duplicated only in a same year, B method: exclusion of any duplicated patients in whole 6 years and inclusion of the case in the first year, MDR-TB: multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

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  Figure 2 The number of XDR-TB patients. A method: exclusion of the patients duplicated only in a same year, B method: exclusion of any duplicated patients in whole 6 years and inclusion of the case in the first year, XDR-TB: extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis.

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