Clinical-epidemiologic characteristics of patients diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis in João Pessoa, PB

Abstract

Resistance to the usual Tuberculosis (TB) treatment schedule has been a worrying phenomenon especially in the developing countries, worsened by poverty, TB/HIV co-infection and degeneration of the health services. The research aimed to describe the clinical-epidemiologic characteristics of patients assisted in a reference hospital in João Pessoa-PB who have developed resistance to tuberculostatics. Documentary retrospective research composed by 22 medical records of patients’ follow-up between 2002 and 2006, it was used a form for the data collection. The results revealed that 77% of the cases were at the age group of 36 to 55 years old; 72,5% were males; 55% single/divorced; 77% had low educational status; 64% had family income lower than a minimum wage. Regarding the clinical characteristics, 100% presented pulmonary clinical form and resistance to isoniazid; 73% resistant to isoniazid, rifampin and a third drug; 40% were pyrazinamide-resistant. Besides the resistance to first and second-line drugs, it was observed resistance to clofazimine, drug used to treat multidrug-resistant cases. It draws the attention that 95% of the cases had previous treatment history, suggesting the need to take measures to increase the performance of the TB control actions, especially the implementation of therapeutic supervision for sensitive cases to prevent resistance.