BMJ 1999;318:497-498 ( 20 February )

Papers

Database study of antibiotic resistant tuberculosis in the United Kingdom, 1994-6

Charles Irish, senior registrar in communicable disease control, ^a Josephine Herbert, Mycobacterial Resistance Network coordinator, ^b Diane Bennett, consultant epidemiologist, ^b Clare Gilham, statistician, ^c Francis Drobniewski, director, ^d Rhian Williams, clinical scientist, ^e E Grace Smith, consultant medical microbiologist, ^f John G Magee, head of unit, ^g Brian Watt, director, ^h Maureen Chadwick, principal biomedical scientist, ⁱ John M Watson, consultant epidemiologist. ^b

^a Brent and Harrow Health Authority, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3EX, ^b Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London NW9 5EQ, ^c Public Health Laboratory Service, Statistics Unit, London NW9 5EQ, ^d Public Health Laboratory Service Mycobacterium Reference Unit, King's College Hospital, London SE22 8QF, ^e Regional Centre for Mycobacteriology, Cardiff Public Health Laboratory, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff CF4 4XW, ^f Regional Centre for Mycobacteriology, Birmingham Public Health Laboratory, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham B9 5ST, ^g Regional Centre for Mycobacteriology, Newcastle Public Health Laboratory, General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE, ^h Scottish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory, City Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5SB, ⁱ Department of Microbiology, Royal Brompton Hospital, London SW3 6NP

Correspondence to: Dr Irish, Brent and Harrow Health Authority, Grace House, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3EX charles@bhha.demon.co.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The global increase in tuberculosis which has occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, and the associated re-emergence of resistance to antituberculous drugs, has focused attention on recent trends in resistance in Europe and the United States.^1-3 In the United Kingdom overall drug resistance levels have been low.⁴ A surveillance system, the UK Mycobacterial Resistance Network (MYCOBNET), was established in 1994 by the Public Health Laboratory Service to record drug resistance in laboratory isolates of tuberculosis. We used data from this network to examine resistance among people with newly diagnosed tuberculosis.

	Subjects, methods, and results

We analysed the data on initial isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex referred to United Kingdom reference laboratories⁵ during 1994 to 1996. Initial isolates were defined as the first positive culture from a person from whom no positive culture had been recorded during the past 12 months. Since M bovis isolates are intrinsically resistant to pyrazinamide these were excluded from estimates of pyrazinamide resistance.

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Rapid Responses:

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Scary

Klaus Lessnau
bmj.com, 19 Feb 1999 [Full text]

The limitations of the data on antibiotic resistant tuberculosis should have been made clearer

Kate Bailey
bmj.com, 5 Mar 1999 [Full text]

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