Rifampin Resistant Tuberculosis; Factors and Demo- Graphic Features

Introduction: Pakistan has the highest burden of Tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and the 5th highest prevalence of multi- drug resistant (MDR) TB worldwide. There is scarce data on the socioeconomic characteristics and factors associated with the patients presenting with drug resistant-TB in Pakistani context. Aims & Objectives: To determine the association of different variables with rifampin resistance (RR) in new and previously treated cases of pulmonary (PTB) and extra-pulmonary TB (EPTB) Place and Duration of Study: It was a cross-sectional study conducted at Gulab Devi Hospital Lahore, a tertiary care trust hospital. Data was collected from Oct 2021 to December 31, 2021. Material & Method: By applying convenient sampling technique, 202 individuals were interviewed, and data was recorded on a self-constructed questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24.0. Frequency tables were generated for sociodemographic variables as well as the site of TB and Chi square test was applied to find association between categorical variables. P value of <0.05 was considered significant. Patients who were categorized as having RR- TB based on detection of RR on Gene Xpert RIF/MTB assay were included. Results: In this study the mean age of the patients was 31.46±14.67 years, 77 (38.1%) patients were males, and 125 (61.9%) patients were females. Statistically significant association was found between the site of RR-TB (PTB or EPTB) and history of repeated TB treatment (p = 0.049) as well as sex (p = 0.019). There were also statistically significant differences between new or previously treated RR-TB and patients’ sex (p = 0.019), repeated treatment (p = 0.049) as well as treatment failure (p < 0.001). Conclusion: More females compared to males suffered from both RR-EPTB and RR-PTB. Also, a higher number of patients with RR-PTB had a history of repeated TB treatments compared to those with RR-EPTB. In addition, significant association was found between sex, treatment failure and repeat anti-tuberculous therapy in previously treated RR-TB patients as compared to new RR-TB cases.