Limited transmission of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in East Azarbaijan, Iran

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in adults from a single infectious agent, killing about 3 million people every year. One-third of the human population is thought to be infected by the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Multidrug resistance isolates are one of the most important concerns in tuberculosis control. In this study, we used MIRU-VNTR to determine MDR-TB transmission in Tabriz. A hundred and twenty M. tuberculosis isolates were collected from patients who referred to TB center of Tabriz and characterized for drug resistance and typing by MIRU-VNTR method. Thirty percent of the isolates were resistant to at least one drug. Among Iranian isolates only two isolates (1.9%) were MDR and in patients from the Republic of Azerbaijan four isolates (28.6%) were MDR. By MIRU-VNTR typing eighty eight distinct profiles were identified, including 20 clustered profiles and 68 unique patterns and fifty two isolates (43.3%) included in clusters. The minimum estimate of the proportion of tuberculosis transmission in East Azerbaijan with MIRU-VNTR was 26.7% and 14% of MDR isolates acquired infections recently. Results of the present study showed that high percent of TB cases are sensitive to antibiotics. MIRU-VNTR typing showed a limited number of MDR-TB transmission in our isolates set. Because of the increasing number of patients referred from Rep. of Azerbaijan with MDR-TB, we need more stewardship and controlling programs for these patients for preventing the outbreak of MDR-TB in our region.