Prevalence of Rifampicin Resistant Mycobacterium Tuberculosis from Tuberculosis Patients Attended at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MTB) is among the top ten causes of mortality throughout the world. However, MTB strains that are resistant to rifampicin and other MTB drugs make this global health situation even worse by making MTB management and control a challenge as well as posing a major risk to MTB patients’ survival. Rifampicin is one of the first-line drugs used against TB, therefore Rifampicin resistance is a good determinant and predictor of multidrug resistant tuberculosis. Rifampicin resistant Tuberculosis caused an estimated 160,000 deaths in 2022 globally. This laboratory-based analytical cross-sectional study aims to determine in a retrospective manner, the prevalence of Rifampicin resistant Tuberculosis in Harare Zimbabwe from January 2023 to December 2023 based on data from Sally Mugabe Central Hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe with reference to results from the National Microbiology Research Laboratory. The study population were all TB suspected patients who visited the selected health institution. Systematic random sampling method was used in this study and the sample size was 150. To analyse the variables in this study, calculation of frequencies and descriptive statistics for each variable was done. The study had 150 study participants, of whom, 51 had Rifampicin Resistant MTB. The age group that was most affected with Rifampicin resistant MTB was the 41-50 years age group, with 39.2%. No RRTB was found in paediatric patients of 0-10 years. 31.4% of the total Rifampicin resistant patients were females and 68.6% were males. Patients who resided in high density areas made up the highest percentage of RRTB cases of 78.4% of the total number of cases and 21.6% resided in low density areas. 74.5% of the total Rifampicin Resistant patients were HIV positive, 17.7% were HIV negative and the HIV status of 7.8% of them was not known. The risk factors associated with RRTB in this study were middle aged adults, males, HIV positive patients, patients with history of treatment with anti-TB drugs and residing in high density areas. This research demonstrated alarming levels of Rifampicin resistance in Harare, Zimbabwe. The strong association of Rifampicin resistance with previous treatment suggests the need for an improved monitoring of treatment to limit the emergence of drug resistant MTB strains. Therefore there is need to strengthen continuous drug resistance surveillance monitoring systems and the implementation of effective infection control measures in order to reduce the burden of Rifampicin Resistant TB.