Abstract :
Introduction: Current methods for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are either costly or slow. As the prevalence of multidrug-resistant strains increases, the need for fast, reliable, and inexpensive methods that can also be applied in settings with scarce resources is obvious.
Aim: To determine the prevalence of multi drug resistant tuberculosis by a simple, rapid and cost effective technique.
Materials and Method: 100 sputum samples from sputum smear positive patients at RNTCP centre were taken and subjected to drug susceptibility testing for all the first line anti tubercular drugs by modified slide culture method. Samples were also subjected to conventional culture on LJ media.
Results: From the 100 smear positive sputum samples, culture of M. tuberculosis was obtained by both LJ medium and modified slide culture for all the samples. Out of the 100 samples, 94 were sensitive for all the drugs, 04 were found to be multidrug resistant and 02 resistant only to isoniazid.
Conclusions: The modified slide culture technique was found to be a safe, rapid and cost effective technique and can used for drug susceptibility testing especially in resource limited settings.
Keyword :
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Sputum sample, LJ media, Modified slide culture, Multi drug resistant