Background: Up-to-date knowledge of the extent of TB drug resistance in general, and particularly among Person Living with HIV, is important in setting up adequate measures of prevention and control of the disease.
Objective: To determine the frequency and pattern of primary anti-TB drug resistance among HIV-positive individuals in two centers in Kinshasa.
Key words:
Primary; Resistance; antituberculous drugs; PLHIV; Kinshasa.
Methods: The sputum of smear-positive tuberculosis patients living with HIV were seeded in Lowenstein Jensen medium and the susceptibility of strains to TB drugs were determined by the proportion technique. The comparison of the data was performed using the Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test as appropriate.
Results: Sixty-eight strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and 2 africanum were isolated from PLHIV. Of these, 38 were resistant to at least one of six anti-tuberculosis drugs tested. Both strains of M.africanum were susceptible to all antituberculosis drugs. Monoresistance was greater for Isoniazid (15.7%) and Streptomycin (10%). On the other hand, that of ethambutol, of loxacin and kanamycin were respectively 1.4%, 4.3% and 2.9%. The frequency of MDR-TB strains was around 4.3% in PLHIV.
Conclusion: The high frequency of primary resistance and the presence of multidrug resistance in PLHIV justify extension of surveillance to the rest of the country in order to define appropriate strategies response.
