PREVALENCE OF DRUG-RESISTANT STRAINS OF MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS ISOLATED FROM UNTREATED PATIENTS IN NEW YORK CITY DURING 1960

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Abstract
Drug-susceptibility tests were done on the patient-strains of M. tuberculosis isolated from 428 patients with untreated pulmonary tuberculosis newly discovered in New York-City during 1960. Of these, 71 (16.6%) showed some loss of susceptibility in vitro to at least one of the 3 drugs tested: streptomycin, isoniazid, and PAS. Fifty-nine strains (13.8%) showed some degree of isoniazid resistance, compared with 6.5% in 1955; 22 strains (5.1%) showed some degree of streptomycin resistance, a finding essentially the same as in 1955. Primary PAS resistance was noted in 9 strains, 2.1% of the series. Eighteen strains (4.2%) showed some loss of susceptibility to more than one drug. Under the conditions and definitions of the present study, the prevalence of significant isoniazid resistance in untreated patient-strains was 2.6% in 1960, compared with approximately 1% in 1955. Significant streptomycin resistance was found in 1.4% of the strains, an insignificant change since 1955. An unusually large proportion of male patients of the "Skid-Row" variety (40.8%) had organisms which showed at least some degree of resistance to one of the drugs. No striking correlation between drug resistance and age, sex, race, or ethnic background of the patient was evident.

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