Homeless individuals and drug-resistant tuberculosis in south Texas

Drug-resistant tuberculosis was found in 21 percent of homeless individuals in New York City between 1982 and 1987. To see if this relationship existed in south Texas, we evaluated all admissions to a Texas Health Department facility with culture-proven tuberculosis. Four hundred forty-three patients were admitted between September 1987 and October 1990. Twenty-six, (5.9 percent) of these patients were identified as homeless. Alcoholism, tobacco abuse, divorce, and unemployment were common demographic characteristics. Six male patients and one female patient (27 percent) had Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to one or more antituberculosis drugs. Five were Hispanic, one was white, and one was black. The six male patients had resistance to only one drug, either rifampin or ethambutol. The female patient had resistance to streptomycin, isoniazid, and rifampin. These findings illustrate that drug-resistant tuberculosis exists among homeless individuals in south Texas. As the number of homeless people increases, physicians need to recognize that pulmonary tuberculosis is a frequent infection in this population and that the causal mycobacteria may well be resistant to one or more antituberculosis agents.