Rifampicin-Resistant Among Patients with Presumptive Tuberculosis in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND

Drug-resistant tuberculosis remains a major public health threat complicating tuberculosis control programs globally. Data on rifampicin resistance (RR), which is a surrogate marker for multidrug resistance, are limited among Ethiopian tuberculosis patients. This study aimed to determine the magnitude of rifampicin-resistant (RR-MTB) among presumptive tuberculosis patients attending St. Peter Tuberculosis Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at St. Peter Tuberculosis Specialized Hospital from January 2016 to December 2018. After checking completeness of the necessary information, data of tuberculosis-presumptive cases who underwent Gene Xpert testing were collected from medical records using a data-extraction format prepared for this study purpose. Data were double entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software.

RESULTS

A total of 12,685 presumptive tuberculosis patients were included; of whom 54.5% were males and the mean age of the study participants was 40.3±18.7 years. (MTB) was detected in 1714 participants (13.5%). Of these MTB cases, 169 cases (9.8%) were confirmed to have RR-MTB. Prevalence of MTB was relatively higher among males (15.1%, =0.78); whereas RR-MTB was higher among females (10.3%, =0.81). The incidence of MTB and RR-MTB was significantly associated with treatment history (=0.042 and =0.025), respectively. HIV infection has significantly associated with incidence of RR-MTB (=0.032), but not with MTB (˃0.05). Prevalence of MTB and RR-MTB had a declining trend through time, being 16.7% and 12.9%, 12.8% and 9.1%, and 12.2% and 7.9% in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively.

CONCLUSION

This study showed a decreasing trend of both MTB and RR-MTB from 2016 to 2018 in an MTB, MDR-MTB, and TB/HIV co-infection high-burden setting, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Occurrence of MTB and RR-MTB was associated with treatment history. Therefore, improvement in treatment adherence of identified cases would be helpful to prevent emergence or re-emergence of MTB and RR-MTB cases.