Treatment outcomes for isoniazid-monoresistant tuberculosis in Peru, 2012-2014

Resistance to isoniazid is the most common form of drug-resistance in tuberculosis. However only a tiny proportion of TB patients in the world have access to isoniazid drug susceptibility testing-the widely implemented Xpert MTB/RIF technology only tests for resistance to rifampicin. Patients with isoniazid mono resistance that is not identified at baseline are treated with a standard regimen that effectively results in rifampicin mono-therapy during the latter four months of the six month treatment course, exposing remaining viable organisms to a single agent and greatly increasing the risk of development of multi drug-resistant TB. Unusually, Peru has pioneered universal pre-treatment drug susceptibility testing with methods that identify isoniazid resistance and has thus identified a large number of individuals requiring tailored therapy. Since 2010, treatment in Peru for isoniazid-resistant tuberculosis without multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (Hr-TB) has been with a standardized nine-month regimen of levofloxacin, rifampicin, ethambutol and pyrazinamide. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the outcomes of treatment for patients with Hr-TB initiating treatment with this regimen between January 2012 and December 2014 and to determine factors affecting these outcomes.

Retrospective cross-sectional study; case data were obtained from the national registry of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Patients diagnosed with isoniazid resistant TB without resistance to rifampicin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol and quinolones as determined by either a rapid drug susceptibility testing (DST) (nitrate reductase test, MODS, Genotype MTBDRplus) or by the proportion method were included.

A total of 947 cases were evaluated (a further 403 without treatment end date were excluded), with treatment success in 77.2% (731 cases), loss to follow-up in 19.7% (186 cases), treatment failure in 1.2% (12 cases), and death in 1.9% (18 cases). Unfavorable outcomes were associated in multivariate analysis with male gender (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.34-0.72, p<0.05), lack of rapid DST (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.50-0.91, p = 0.01), additional use of an injectable second-line anti-tuberculous drug (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.31-0.70, p<0.05), and treatment initiation in 2014 (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.62-0.94, p = 0.01).

The treatment regimen implemented in Peru for isoniazid resistant TB is effective for TB cure and is not improved by addition of an injectable second-line agent. Access to rapid DST and treatment adherence need to be strengthened to increase favorable results.