[Resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. An 8-year survey in the Poitiers area]

We have studied in Poitiers area from 1977 to 1984 the resistance of 853 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains to the main anti-tuberculosis drugs. The overall rate of drug resistance was showed to be steady over the years while the primary resistance rate has decreased. The only one drug resistance has concerned para-aminosalicylic acid, streptomycin and isoniazid. Foreigners, most of them Asian people or North-African people, often bear resistant tubercle bacilli (29,03%) compared with French people (9,29%). We encountered drug resistance phenomena essentially among less than 60 years old patients. Drug susceptibility tests remain indispensable for a good epidemiologic supervision at the time of relapses and among patients possibly infected with multiresistant germs.