First Susceptibility Testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for Second-line Anti-tuberculosis Drugs in Ghana

Tomoko Kato; Kennedy Kwasi Addo; Naomi Nartey; Alexander Kwadwo Nyarko; Frank Adae Bonsu; Satoshi Mitarai

doi:10.2149/tmh.2013-16

First Susceptibility Testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for Second-line Anti-tuberculosis Drugs in Ghana

Trop Med Health. 2014 Mar;42(1):53-5. doi: 10.2149/tmh.2013-16. Epub 2014 Feb 4.

Authors

Tomoko Kato¹, Kennedy Kwasi Addo², Naomi Nartey², Alexander Kwadwo Nyarko², Frank Adae Bonsu³, Satoshi Mitarai¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mycobacterium Reference and Research, The Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan Anti-tuberculosis Association, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Bacteriology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
³ National Tuberculosis Programme, Ghana Health Service, Ghana.

Abstract

We performed drug susceptibility testing on first- and second-line drugs in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) for the first time in Ghana to obtain preliminary data on drug-resistant tuberculosis. Of 21 isolates (4 new cases and 17 treated cases), 5 (23.8%) were multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and 19 (90.5%) were resistant to at least one drug, but no extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) was identified. Since the target patients were Category II, IV or smear positive at follow-up microscopy, it is understandable that there were many drug-resistant TB cases. Six isolates were resistant to one or two second-line drugs, but the second-line drugs were not approved in Ghana. It is considered that the bacilli were imported from abroad. Preventing the import of drug-resistant TB bacilli is probably one of best ways to control TB in Ghana.

Keywords: Drug susceptibility testing; Ghana; MDR/XDR-TB; second-line drugs.