Drug Resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex among Newly Diagnosed Tuberculosis Cases in Burkina Faso

BACKGROUND: In Burkina Faso, there is no recent data about the level of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains among newly diagnosed tuberculosis cases. OBJECTIVE: To provide an update of the primary drug resistance of mycobacterium tuberculosis among patients in Burkina faso. METHODS: Mycobacterium strains were identified in 323 newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients between April 2005 and September 2006, and their susceptibility to isoniazid, rifampicin, streptomycin, and ethambutol was determined according to the proportions method. Among these patients, 243 accepted voluntarily to be tested for antibodies to HIV. RESULTS: The age range of the patients was 11 and 75 years and included 221 (68.4%) males and 102 (21.6%) females. The isolates included 314 (97.2%) M. tuberculosis, eight (0.3%) M. africanum and one M. bovis. Thirty-nine (12.4%) of the M. tuberculosis strains were resistant, with 7.3% resistant to one drug, 2.9% to two drugs, 0.3% to three drugs and 1.9% to four drugs. In total 3.2% of the isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR). One isolate of M. africanum was resistant to all drugs while the single strain of M. bovis was sensitive to all the drugs. Among the 243 patients tested for HIV 77 were positive. However, there was no relationship between drug resistance and gender, age group or HIV serostatus of the patients. CONCLUSION: The resistance rate of M. tuberculosis strains to all the four drugs tested (12.4%) and the rate of MDR (3.2%) are high. These results demand an increased effort by the National Tuberculosis Program to limit the spread of MDR strains of tuberculosis.