SURVEILLANCE OF ANTI-TUBERCULAR DRUG RESISTANCE

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in Nepal. Failure in early detection anddrug resistance are two most important problems in treatment and cure of thetuberculosis. The objective of the study was to assess the drug resistance pattern inMycobacterium tuberculosis isolated in Tribhuvan University teaching Hospital. Morethan 85% of isolates were sensitive to all the four drugs and 5.5% of isolates weremultidrug resistant. The drug resistant isolates were obtained more frequently frompreviously treated patients. More extensive studies should be carried out by independentorganizations to collect more representative data on drug resistance tuberculosis.Key Words: Tuberculosis, drug resistance and surveillance.