Prevalence of antituberculosis drug resistance in Harar Tuberculosis Centre, Ethiopia

A tuberculosis centre based, cross sectional study was carried out in order to describe the magnitude of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in Harar, eastern Ethiopia. The study was conducted in Harar Tuberculosis Centre which is the major tuberculosis treatment centre in eastern Ethiopia. A total of 338 smear/culture positive patients were enrolled in the study between October 10, 1994 and January 20, 1995. Exposure status was determined through interview; drug resistance was determined through laboratory investigation. The overall prevalence of resistance to one or more antituberculosis drugs was 126/338(37.3%). Initial and acquired resistance were 82/252(32.5%) and 44/86(51.2%) respectively. Multi-drug resistance (resistance to both isoniazid and rifampicin) was detected in 3.5% of cases who had previous history of treatment. Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance was significantly higher in those who had previous history treatment (p < 0.005). The prevalence of drug resistance is high in Harar. There is a need for periodic drug resistance survey. Implementation of the WHO recommended supervised treatment with multi-sectoral approach is suggested.