title: Anti-tuberculous initial drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Kenya: a ten-year review.
abstract: Our experience at the Respiratory Diseases Research Unit (RDRU), over the last 10 years (1981-1990) on the initial drug resistance pattern, focusing on three drugs viz: isoniazid (H), streptomycin (S) and rifampicin (R) is presented. Records on all isolates of M. tuberculosis from one specimen of every newly diagnosed patient recruited countrywide between 1981-1990 were reviewed. We analyzed records of 6,514 isolates and found that total resistance to the three drugs had increased from 8.9% to 14.4%. Resistance to H alone increased from 6.8% to 10.2% while that of S alone from 0.8% to 1.8%. Resistance to R was between 0.1% and 0.3%. Generally, the increase in the resistance trend to both H and S was statistically significant (p = < 0.05 and 0.03, respectively). Although in our analysis we did not address the possible impact of HIV infection, we hope that these findings form a basis for evaluation of this and other possible factors on the emergence of anti-TB drug resistance in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Respiratory Diseases Research Unit, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi.
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Githui
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kwamanga
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Chakaya
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Karimi
authors.forename: P G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Waiyaki
mesh_terms: D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007538:Isoniazid / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007630:Kenya / Q000453:epidemiology; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012293:Rifampin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013307:Streptomycin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D007538:Isoniazid; D012293:Rifampin; D013307:Streptomycin