Background Tuberculosis poses a serious health problem worldwide with a high mortality rate, especially in immunocompromised individuals. The emergence of drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis further burdened with high prevalence of HIV threatens to make this important human disease difficult to manage. Nigeria is currently listed among the 30 high burden countries for TB, TB/HIV and DR-TB. This study was carried out to determine Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance pattern to first-line anti-TB drugs (rifampicin and isoniazid) in TB patients who were HIV seropositive in Rivers State.

Methods Two hundred and sixty HIV sero-positive patients ≥ 18 years old were recruited from three health care facilities in Rivers State. The subjects were separated into two groups consisting of 130 TB/HIV co-infected patients on anti-tuberculosis treatment and 130 HIV seropositive patients, suspected of having tuberculosis and yet to commence anti TB treatment. Sputum samples were processed by line probe assay (MTBDRplus by HAIN Lifescience). Analysis were carried out with the SPSS v20 software.

Results Of the 260 recruited HIV seropositive subjects, 159 were positive for TB: 127 from the treatment exposed group and 32 from the treatment naïve group. Among all the TB/HIV co-infected subjects, MDR-TB was detected in 10.1% (16/159) of the study subjects. Among the treatment experienced group, MDR-TB was detected in 11.0% (14/127), INH-monoresistance in 15.7% (20/127) and RIF-monoresistance in 11.8% (15/127) while 6.3% (2/32) of treatment naïve subjects had MDR-TB, 12.5% (4/32) had INH-monoresistant TB and 6.3% (2/32) had RIF-monoresistant TB.

Conclusion Primary MDR-TB was prevalent in Rivers State (6.3%). This implies a high level of ongoing transmission of MDR-TB in TB/HIV co-infected individuals within the community. The DOTS program needs to be strengthened to capture TB/HIV co-infected individuals early enough to manage them promptly.

Disclosure No significant relationships.