Prevalence of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis: A Six-Year Single-Center Retrospective Study in Tehran, Iran

Background: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is one of the main challenges to TB control, particularly in developing countries such as Iran. Continuous TB drug resistance surveillance is required for the effective management of TB patients. Methods: The antibiotic susceptibility patterns of clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were retrospectively analyzed from April 2012 to March 2018. Conventional and molecular methods were used for the identification and drug susceptibility testing (DST) of M. tuberculosis isolates. Results: A total of 3,012 clinical specimens were collected form TB-suspected patients. Of them, 100 (3.3%) were culture-positive and assigned as M. tuberculosis by phenotypic and molecular methods. According to DST, 17 (17%) isolates were MDR-TB. Conclusions: Improved diagnosis and treatment of MDR-TB may lead to better control of the disease in Iran.