The Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant Tuberculosis at National Microbiology Reference Laboratory, 2021 to 2023

Abstract

Tuberculosis infections have been one of the killer infections with an estimated population of about 10.6 million being affected annually with the severity being increased by anti-microbial resistance. The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance has been reported to be 11.6% (95% Cl: 9.1-14.5%) and some countries in the southern Africa like South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana having 8.2%, 20.8%, 12.7% and 9.0% respectively. Zimbabwe has been one of the countries struggling with anti-microbial resistant tuberculosis and according to the study carried out in 2019 there has been a stable increase in antibiotic resistant tuberculosis since 1994 with the prevalence being 8.4%. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of anti-microbial resistance for the period of 2021- 2023 and to try and find related factors and try to manage the cases. The study is a retrospective study on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance tuberculosis conducted in 2024 at National Microbiology Reference Laboratory. The study had 108 patients from different regions whose tuberculosis tests were being done at NMRL. The prevalence of antimicrobial tuberculosis was 7.8% in 2021, 7.4% in 2022 and 10.5% in 2023. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was isolated from the patient sputum and grown in Lowenstein Jensen agar. The susceptibility was done using Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) with Ethambutol having the highest sensitivity and Pyrazinamide was used on a few samples. Mycobacterium tuberculosis demonstrated resistance in most of the drugs that were used with the most resistance being experienced in Rifampicin and Isoniazid. The percentage frequency of sensitive drugs and antimicrobial resistance was 76.9% and 23.1% respectively. The researcher recommends that there should be awareness programs through the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Ministry of Information Publicity and Broadcasting to warn and enlighten the nation on antimicrobial resistance and avoid delayed diagnosis, and there is also the need to create ways to closely monitor patients on treatment to deal with issues of adherence. There were some problems which were faced by the researcher which include not all data was recorded, incomplete cases like contamination cases where no other specimen was collected. In conclusion the prevalence of antimicrobial resistant tuberculosis is still on the rise and needs immediate attention for better results in health.