Previous treatment, sputum-smear nonconversion, and suburban living: The risk factors of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among Malaysians

Publication date: Available online 28 November 2015 Source:International Journal of Mycobacteriology Author(s): Noorsuzana Mohd Shariff, Shamsul Azhar Shah, Fadzilah Kamaludin The number of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients is increasing each year in many countries all around the globe. Malaysia has no exception in facing this burdensome health problem. We aimed to investigate the factors that contribute to the occurrence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among Malaysian tuberculosis patients. An unmatched case-control study was conducted among tuberculosis patients who received antituberculosis treatments from April 2013 until April 2014. Cases are those diagnosed as pulmonary tuberculosis patients clinically, radiologically, and/or bacteriologically, and who were confirmed to be resistant to both isoniazid and rifampicin through drug-sensitivity testing. On the other hand, pulmonary tuberculosis patients who were sensitive to all first-line antituberculosis drugs and were treated during the same time period served as controls. A total of 150 tuberculosis patients were studied, of which the susceptible cases were 120. Factors found to be significantly associated with the occurrence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis are being Indian or Chinese (odds ratio 3.17, 95% confidence interval 1.04–9.68; and odds ratio 6.23, 95% confidence interval 2.24–17.35, respectively), unmarried (odds ratio 2.58, 95% confidence interval 1.09–6.09), living in suburban ...
Source: International Journal of Mycobacteriology - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research