[The resistance rates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains to antituberculosis drugs: evaluation of two years' data in Aegean region, Turkey].

The aim of this study was to determine the primary, secondary and total resistance rates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in the Aegean Region, Turkey, between November 1st 1999 and November 30th 2001. A total of 490 M. tuberculosis strains isolated from patients admitted to 27 different tuberculosis dispensaries, were evaluated. The isolates have been identified as Mycobacterium tuberculosis with the colony morphology, growth rate and standard biochemical tests, and their sensitivities to isoniazid, rifampicin and ethambutol were tested by using indirect proportion method. H37Rv, ATCC 35838 and ATCC 35825 were used as standard control strains. Clinical information could be obtained about 474 patients and it has been detected that 387 (81.6%) of them received no prior antituberculous therapy, while 87 of them (18.4%) received antituberculous therapy longer than one month. Primary, secondary and total resistance rates to one or more drugs was found as 18.4%, 32.2% and 20.9%, respectively. Primary, secondary and total resistance rates for isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (R) were found as follows, respectively; 12.4%, 26.4%, 14.9% and 5.7%, 19.5%, 8.2%. Primary resistance rate against INH+R were found 4.4%, secondary resistance rate were 17.2% and total resistance rate were 6.8%, in the multi-drug resistant isolates. According to these results it could be concluded that, drug resistance which requires immediate solution, continues to be a major problem in our region.