Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in children and adolescents from 2016 to 2022

Objectives: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) remains a public health problem in developing countries. In children and adolescents, very few data are available in the literature on this pathology. This study aims to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of MDR-TB in children and adolescents from 206 to 2022. Materials and Methods: It is a retrospective, multicenter, descriptive, and analytical study that was conducted from January 01, 2016, to December 31, 2022. Results: Our study included 46 patients’ records of MDR-TB. The rate of MDR-TB was 2.6% in children and adolescents. The mean age of patients was 7.8 ± 5.0 years with an interquartile range of 5 [8–13 quartile]. There is a female predominance (65.2%). The clinical signs of MDR-TB in children are identical to those in adults. The pulmonary localization of TB predominated (93.5%). TB-human immunodeficiency virus co-infection was 21.7%. At the end of anti-TB treatment, treatment success was noted in 78.3% of patients, with a mortality rate of 10.9%. Respiratory rate >20 cycles/min was associated with the patient death rate. Conclusion: The prevalence of MDR-TB was low. Clinical signs were similar to those in adults. Pulmonary localization predominated. The mortality rate was high. Respiratory rate >20 cycles/min is associated with death rate.