Introduction:

Tuberculosis control in Colombia has been hampered by resistance to antituberculosis drugs and particularly by multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

Objective:

Determine the overall resistance and resistance profiles of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to first-line antituberculosis drugs and their combinations.

Methods:

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted of 2 701 tuberculosis patients from Atlántico Department in Colombia in the period 2011-2016. The evaluation included sociodemographic aspects, clinical characteristics and risk conditions. Data analysis was based on relative and absolute frequencies, proportion difference (x2) and prevalence ratio.

Results:

Of the total sample, 66.5% were men and 53% were aged 15-44 years. 47.34% were lost to follow-up and 11.62% were monoresistant to isoniazid. In new cases resistance was 7.30% (CI 95%: 6.3-8.5) and multi-drug resistance was 1.1%, whereas in previously treated cases resistance was 18.27% (CI 95%: 15.6-22.4) and multi-drug resistance was 5.7%. The factors associated to resistance were the presence of HIV/TB (AR= 2.6; p= 0.000), other immunosuppressive factors (AR= 3.5; p= 0.009), contact with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patient (AR= 16; p= 0.000) and previously treated case (AR= 2.24; p= 0.00).

Conclusions:

A reduction is observed in overall resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid, as well as in the prevalence of multi-drug resistance, both in new cases and in previously treated cases, which creates a baseline for the taking of decisions aimed at the continuing improvement of the surveillance and control of M. tuberculosis resistance to first-line drugs, due to the new challenges posed by this microorganism to public health.

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