Prevalence of drug resistance in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis presenting for the first time with symptoms at chest clinics in India - Part I - Findings in urban clinics among patients, giving no history of previous chemotherapy.
Indian Council of Medical Research.
Indian Journal of Medical Research; 1968; 56; 1617-1630.
It is generally accepted that information on the prevalence of the drug resistance is essential for countries which contemplate, the mass chemotherapy programme for tuberculosis (International Union against Tuberculosis, 1961). In India, in 1964, information on this subject was confirmed to certain limited areas only (Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras, 1959, 1960, 1964; Frimodt-Moller, 1962; Menon, 1963; Balbir Singh, 1964). Therefore, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) launched a series of investigations to determine the prevalence of drug resistance in tuberculous patients reporting for the first time with symptoms at chest clinics; chest clinics were chosen since they are an obvious starting point for any mass chemotherapy programme. A special sub-committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research (see footnote) was constituted to organise the execution of these investigations, and a Central Laboratory set up on the premises of the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras, to undertake all the necessary bacteriological investigations.
This paper reports the findings of the first of these investigations, and presents information regarding the prevalence of drug resistance in patients reporting for the first time with symptoms at 9 urban chest clinics and denying history of previous antituberculosis chemotherapy. Subsequent investigations deal with the prevalence of drug resistance among all patients, with or without a history of previous chemotherapy, reporting for the first time with symptoms at the same urban clinics and in certain semi-urban clinics; the findings will be reported later.
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