Setting: Civilian population of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Objectives: To determine patterns of anti-tuberculosis drug resistance among new and previously treated pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) cases, and explore their association with socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.
Design: National cross-sectional survey conducted in 2012-2013.
Results: Of 789 patients (549 new and 240 previously treated) who met the enrolment criteria, 231 (42%) new and 146 (61%) previously treated patients were resistant to any anti-tuberculosis drug; 72 (13%) new and 66 (28%) previously treated patients had multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Among MDR-TB cases, 38% of new and 46% of previously treated cases had pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (pre-XDR-TB) or XDR-TB. In previously treated cases, 51% of those who had failed treatment had MDR-TB, which was 15 times higher than in relapse cases (OR 15.2, 95%CI 6-39). The only characteristic significantly associated with MDR-TB was a history of previous treatment (OR 3.1, 95%CI 2.1-4.7); for this group, history of incarceration was an additional risk factor for MDR-TB (OR 2.8, 95%CI 1.1-7.4).
Conclusion: Azerbaijan remains a high MDR-TB burden country. There is a need to implement countrywide control and innovative measures to accelerate early diagnosis of drug resistance in individual patients, improve treatment adherence and strengthen routine surveillance of drug resistance.
Keywords: Azerbaijan; SORT IT; drug-resistant tuberculosis; operational research; surveillance.