Experiences in anti-tuberculosis treatment in patients with multiple previous treatments and its impact on drug resistant tuberculosis epidemics

摘要

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) patients with a history of multiple anti-TB treatments are the ‘neglected’ group to the free anti-TB treatment policy in China.ObjectiveTo understand the experiences of TB patients with multiple previous treatments with regard to bacteriological diagnosis and treatment regimens, especially for second-line anti-TB drugs, and how this might influence the risks of multidrug and extensively drug-resistant TB (M/XDR-TB).DesignA cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 county/district TB clinics in five provinces of China. The study participants were TB patients that had at least two previous treatment episodes that lasted longer than 1 month each. Face-to-face interviews and drug susceptibility testing (DST) were conducted with the consenting participants.ResultsA total of 328 TB patients were recruited. The proportion of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) was 58.2% in the 287 DST-confirmed patients. Forty-two percent of the patients did not complete their first treatment co...