Ann Lab Med.  2017 Jul;37(4):323-326. 10.3343/alm.2017.37.4.323.

Drug Resistance Patterns of Multidrug- and Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Korea: Amplification of Resistance to Oral Second-line Drugs

• Kim CK
• Shin SY
• Kim HJ
• Lee K

• KMID: 2376789
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2017.37.4.323

Abstract

We aimed to analyze the drug resistance patterns of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and the difference of drug resistance among various settings for health care in Korea. The data of drug susceptibility testing in 2009 was analyzed in order to secure sufficient number of patients from various settings in Korea. Patients were categorized by types of institutions into four groups, which comprised new and previously treated patients from public health care centers (PHC), the private sector, and Double-barred Cross clinics (DBC). The resistance rates to first-line drugs were uniformly high in every group. While the resistance rates to second-line drugs were not as high as first-line drugs, there was a pattern that drug resistance rates were lowest for PHC and highest for DBC. The differences of the resistance rates were more prominent for oral second-line drugs. Our findings implied that drug resistance to oral second-line drugs was significantly amplified during multidrug-resistant-TB treatment in Korea. Therefore, an individualized approach is recommended for treating drug-resistant-TB based on susceptibility testing results to prevent acquisition or amplification of drug resistance.

Keyword

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis; Drug susceptibility testing

MeSH Terms

Delivery of Health Care
Drug Resistance*
Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis*
Humans
Korea*
Private Sector
Public Health
Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant

Figure

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  Fig. 1 The prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) and proportion of extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB among MDR-TB.Abbreviations: PHC new, public health center patients with newly diagnosed tuberculosis; PHC retreatment, public health center patients with previously treated tuberculosis; DBC, Double-barred Cross.

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