An alarming rate of drug-resistant tuberculosis at Ngwelezane Hospital in Northern KwaZulu Natal, south Africa

OBJECTIVE: To obtain a profile of: tuberculosis (TB) cases caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in northern KwaZulu Natal (KZN) for 2001. METHOD: The demographic and drug, resistance characteristics.. were determined A total of 251 smear and: culture confirmed cases was obtained, and the resistance of three major anti-tuberculosis drugs was tested using the proportion method. RESULTS: The patients were mainly from Ngwelezane (57.8%), Stanger (23.5%) and Manguzi (18.7%); 59.0% were male; 54.2% of the isolates were obtained from new TB patients. The mean age of the TB patients was 29.6 years, with the maximum notification age range at 25-34 years. A high prevalence of drug-resistant and multiresistant TB was observed in this region. At least 55% of previously treated and 19% of new cases from all areas were resistant to at least one of the drugs tested. New patients from Ngwelezane and Manguzi area had a high prevalence of any rifampicin resistance (11.0%) and, ethambutol resistance (3.9%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the TB epidemic in northern KZN, especially in Ngwelezane, is severe. An infrastructure to educate stakeholders about the need to ensure consistency in treatment is needed.