Trend of initial drug resistance of tubercle bacilli isolated from new patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and its correlation with the tuberculosis programme in Beijing.

SETTING: The tuberculosis control programme of Beijing.
OBJECTIVE: To observe the trend of initial drug resistance of tubercle bacilli and to try to correlate it with the Beijing tuberculosis control programme.
DESIGN: Susceptibility testing of randomly collected isolates of positive sputum culture from new patients with pulmonary tuberculosis without a history of prior antituberculosis therapy, in 1962 and continuously since 1978. Collection of treatment data from the Beijing tuberculosis control programme.
RESULTS: The trend of initial drug resistance in Beijing began to decline in 1978. The Beijing tuberculosis treatment programme has been very successful, resulting in rapid reduction of prevalence of smear-positive cases.
CONCLUSION: It appears that the trend of initial drug resistance correlates with progress made in the implementation of the successful tuberculosis programme in Beijing. It is recommended that continuous observation of initial drug resistance be one of the indices of tuberculosis surveillance.