Multidrug resistant tuberculosis treatment outcome in children in developing and developed countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

We aimed to compare and contrast the proportions of treatment outcome between developing and developed countries in children treated for multidrug resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of articles published on children treated for MDR-TB. We searched published articles from electronic databases: PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science for English articles without restricting publication year. We employed random-effects meta-analysis model to estimate the pooled proportions of treatment success, death, treatment failure and lost to follow up.

RESULTS

We pooled data of 1,343 children obtained from 17 included studies, and the overall pooled treatment success was 77.0% (95% Confidence Interval (CI), 69.0-85.0). Pooled treatment success in developing countries was 73.0% (63.0-83.0), while in developed countries 87.0% (81.0-94.0). The overall pooled treatment failure was 3.0% (1.0-6.0), while death 8.0% (4.0-11.0) and lost to follow up 10.0% (6.0-4).

CONCLUSION

MDR-TB treatment success in children is well achieved in both developed and developing countries by currently available drugs. Improving MDR-TB treatment programme is vital to achieve the maximum treatment successful. Promoting research on pediatric MDR-TB treatment outcome could also help to fill evidence gap.