Treatment Success Rate among Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Patients Registered Under Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Services in District Amritsar, Punjab, India

Background: MDR-TB has become an urgent public health problem worldwide, threatening the global TB control. The success rate of treating multi drug resistant remains very low.

Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on all MDR-TB patients who were registered and being treated under PMDT services in Amritsar district from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2016. The treatment outcome with their clinico-demographic determinants was ascertained. Data management and analysis was done by using Microsoft excel and SPSS.

Results: Out of 110 registered MDR-TB patients, 88 (80.0%) were males and 22 (20.0%) were females. The various treatment outcomes observed were- 36 (32.7%) cured, 20 (18.2%) treatment completed, 16 (14.5%) defaulted, 22 (20.0%) died, 11 (10.0%) regimen changed or shifted to XDR TB regime, 5(4.5%) transferred out. The success rate (cured + treatment completed) was 50.9%.

Conclusions: On statistical analysis, it was observed that age (p=0.012), weight band of patients under RNTCP (p=0.040) were significantly associated with the treatment outcome. Other factors like sex, residence, type of tuberculosis and the HIV status of the patient did not affect the treatment outcome.