Abstract:
Background: Tuberculosis is a major global health problem and remains major cause of
morbidity and mortality. In Ethiopia, despite the rising public health concern of drug resistance
tuberculosis, patterns and factors underlying for spread of this disease are not well documented.
Objective: To assess the prevalence, patterns and associated factors of drug resistance
tuberculosis among presumptive drug resistance tuberculosis cases attending to Harari Health
Research and Regional laboratories Eastern Ethiopia from March 15 to 30, 2017.
Methods and Materials: Institution based Cross-sectional study design was used. Study
participants were recruited from all 380 bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis cases, drug
susceptibilities were done by line probe assay submitted to Harari Health and Research Regional
laboratories for drug-resistance testing between January 2014 and December 2016. Data were
retrieved using structured checklist which is adopted World Health Organization tuberculosis
treatment guideline. Retrieved data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical
software. Descriptive analysis was done to describe the frequency and percentage. To identify
associated factors Bivariate and multivariate analysis with 95%CI was carried out.
Result: A total of 380 culture confirmed TB cases were included in the study. The overall drug
resistance rate during study period was 149 (39.2%). In multivariate logistic analysis male (AOR
=2.115;95%CI (1.229-3.640)), Age 26-45 years (AOR=2.742;95%CI (1.247-6.026)), previous
history of TB (AOR=4.081;95%CI (1.754-9.491)) treatment category failure and relapse
(AOR=13.881;95%CI (7.022-27.438), AOR=2.291;95%CI (1.245-4.215)), HIV co-infection and
bacterial load +3 and +2 (AOR =2.32;95%CI (1.263-4.262)), (AOR=3.838;95%CI (1.771-8.317)
and AOR=(3.063;95%CI (1.328-7.063)) were significantly associated with drug resistance
tuberculosis.
Conclusion and recommendation: In this study drug resistance TB was high and mainly affects
economically productive age group of the population and males. High rate of MDR TB was
observed on previously treated cases, exposure to anti TB medicine was the leading risk factor.
This is a threat to TB control program in Ethiopia so that diagnostic capacity for mycobacterial
culture and DST should be expanded.
