Prevalence of Isoniazid Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Western Rajasthan

Drug resistance in MTB is alarming because of the limited choice of drugs available for treatment. First line drugs are safe, effective and cheaper than second line drugs. Any resistance in rifampicin or isoniazid will increase the chances of sensitive MTB strain to shift toward MDR or Pre-XDR strains. The male population (70.80%) was more frequently involved than the females (29.2%). The rural population was exposed at higher proportion accounted for 69.8% of cases. Comorbidity tobacco and alcohol consumption was associated in 31.2% and 25.8% of tuberculosis cases. In our study mono resistance in isoniazid was 14.20% which was higher than mono rifampicin resistance of 9.20%. Our findings suggest high resistance to isoniazid alone is alarming as these strains may shift towards MDR, Pre-XDR or XDR strains therefore, furthermore studies should be conducted at a large scale at the community level to estimate the prevalence and prevent this shift of resistant strains.