Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis Burden among the New Tuberculosis Patients in Zhejiang Province: An Observational Study, 2009-2013.

BACKGROUND: Screening on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been limited to the serious TB subpopulations excluding the new TB patients. This study aimed to examine MDR-TB burden among the new TB patients.

METHODS: We conducted a study in Zhejiang Province during 2009-2013 to screen for MDR-TB patients among the low MDR-TB risk patients and five subpopulations of high MDR-TB risk patients. The number, prevalence, and trend of MDR-TB were compared while the logistic regression model was used to examine risk factors related to MDR-TB.

RESULTS: A total of 200 and 791 MDR-TB cases were, respectively, identified from the 9830 new TB cases and 2372 high-risk suspects who took MDR-TB screening from 2009 to 2013. The MDR-TB rates went down in both of the new TB patients and five MDR-TB high-risk groups over the study time, but the percentage of MDR-TB patients identified from the new TB patients in all diagnosed MDR-TB cases kept stable from 28.3% in 2011 to 27.0% in 2012 to 26.0% in 2013.

CONCLUSIONS: The study indicated that MDR-TB burden among new TB patients was high, thus screening for MDR-TB among the new TB patients should be recommended in China as well as in the similar situation worldwide.