Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing genotype is an independent risk factor for tuberculosis treatment failure in Indonesia.

Animal studies have shown that the globally emerging Beijing genotype strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are more virulent than other strains. We examined whether Beijing strains increase treatment failure in a prospective cohort study in Indonesia. Among 818 tuberculosis cases, positive sputum culture results after 6 months of treatment were more common among patients infected with Beijing strains (33.4%) than among those infected with non-Beijing strains (relative risk, 1.94 [95% confidence interval, 1.26-3.00]), even after adjustment for differences in drug resistance. These data suggest that M. tuberculosis Beijing genotype strains have a higher capacity to withstand tuberculosis treatment, even in the absence of drug resistance.