TREND OF INITIAL-DRUG RESISTANCE OF TUBERCLE-BACILLI ISOLATED FROM NEW PATIENTS WITH PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH THE TUBERCULOSIS PROGRAM IN BEIJING

Setting: The tuberculosis control programme of Beijing. Objective: To observe the trend of initial drug resistance of tubercle bacilli and t o try to correlate it with the Beijing tuberculosis control programme. Design: Susceptibility testing of randomly collected isolates of posi tive sputum culture from new patients with pulmonary tuberculosis with out a history of prior antituberculosis therapy, in 1962 and continuou sly since 1978. Collection of treatment data from the Beijing tubercul osis control programme. Results: The trend of initial drug resistance in Beijing began to decline in 1978. The Beijing tuberculosis treatmen t programme has been very successful, resulting in rapid reduction of prevalence of smear-positive cases. Conclusion: It appears that the tr end of initial drug resistance correlates with progress made in the im plementation of the successful tuberculosis programme in Beijing. It i s recommended that continuous observation of initial drug resistance b e one of the indices of tuberculosis surveillance.