Surveillance of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistance tuberculosis in two districts of Buenos Aires Province: San Fernando and Tigre from 2004 to 2008

B DI GIULIO; COLLAZOS R; GARCÍA R; DECROIX F; IMPERIALE B; MORCILLO N

Rosario

Congreso; IV Congreso de la Sociedad Latinoamericana de Tuberculosis y Micobacteriosis; 2009

SLAMTB

Introduction. San Fernando and Tigre belong to the Northern districts of Buenos Aires Province where most of tuberculosis (TB) cases occur every year. Objectives. To describe the incidence rates of TB, multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB) and mycobacterioses in residents at both districts during 2004-2008. Methods. From 3597 suspicious cases, 3967 clinical specimens were analyzed: 3411 (86.0%) from respiratory sites (RS) and 556 (16.3%) with extra-pulmonary symptoms (EXP-TB). Clinical specimens were processed by direct smear examination, conventional cultures and MGIT®. Drug-susceptibility testing to first (DST-FLD) and second-line (DST-SLD) drugs were performed by different methods according with microbiological criteria: proportion method on solid media, microplate colorimetric-based method and SIRE MGIT®. Results. A total of 483 new TB cases were diagnosed: 418 (86.5%) with respiratory disease and 65 (13.5%) with EXP-TB; 61 cases (12.6%) were HIV co-infected, 57 (11.8%) had previous treatment history and 143 (29.6%) were women. DST-FLD was performed to 355 isolates with the following results: global drug-resistance: 13.5% (48/355); MDR-TB: 3.4% (12 /355), 8/12 cases without previous treatment; multiple drug-resistances: 2.0% (7/355). MDR-TB represented the 25.0% (12/48) of the global drug-resistance. Molecular identification showed 2 cases in which M. bovis was the etiological agent and 19 with a no-tuberculosis mycobacteria isolated. DST-SLD was performed on 12 MDR-TB isolates. Conclusions. During the study period, TB incidence rates remained steady however the number of examined RS decreased. Most of MDR-TB cases had no previous anti-TB treatment records. This fact might indicate a possible active dissemination of this particular disease in both communities.