A sociodemographic study of multidrug resistant tuberculosis cases from DOTS clinics of Kolkata.

This cross-sectional, observational study was undertaken to identify rifampicin and INH resistant mycobacteria in the sputum samples of category II treatment failure tuberculosis patients from three 'DOTS' clinics of Kolkata (Ward No 15, 33, 79 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation). Conventional method of culture in solid and liquid media followed by sensitivity testing to rifampicin and INH were done. Age, sex, economic status, nutrition, history of contact, living condition, etc, were taken into consideration. Out of 66 category II treatment failure tuberculosis cases from 3 DOTS clinics, 45 (68.2%) were found to be multidrug resistant (MDR). Among them, 68.9% were male patients and 55.6% were in the economically productive age group. Most of them (73.3%) were malnourished (BMI < 18.5); 62.2% of patients belonged to 'below poverty line' (BPL) category and 82.2% patients lived in overcrowded room. Majority of them (82.3%) either had past history of tuberculosis or history of contact or both.This study also shows that apart from the biological reasons of drug resistance, the sociodemographic and economic factors are no less important for the spread of drug resistant tuberculosis.