Resistencia a drogas antituberculosas en Caracas, Venezuela; 2001-2006

to asses drug susceptibility of mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from 2001 to 2006 in caracas. available strains were tested using colorimetric method to determine the minimal inhibitory concentrations (mic). of 324 strains, 46 (14,2%) showed resistance to one or more drugs. high-resistance (8 μg/ml) and low-resistance (1-4 μg/ml) to strep omycint was found in 6 (1,8%) and 25 (7,7%) strains, respectively. isoniazid (inh) low-resistance (mic 0.125 - 0.5 μg/ml) were found in 8 (2,5%) and high-resistant (mic at 1.0 μg/ml) in 15 (4,6%), rifampicin resistance (rmp) (5 μg/ml) in 13 (4%), and ethambutol resistance (10 μg/ml) in 11 (3,4%) of the strains. of the 17 (5,2%) isolates resistant to two or more drugs, 12 (3,7%) were resistant to inh and rmp (defined as multidrug resistance, mdr). of these 12 mdr strains, 11 were isolated from sputum and one from pleu ral fluid. this study shows an increased prevalence of resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs in caracas, especially the prevalence of mdr strains, raises an urgent need of a proper nationwide survey to evaluate the true picture of resistance.