The prevalence of tuberculosis is slowly decreasing in Korea. However, the drug-resistance of pulmonary tuberculosis is a major risk factor of treatment failure. Moreover, the National Surveillance System has recently been discontinued. Therefore, a continuous survey is necessary for the exact detection of the rate of drug resistance. We studied the recent 4-year drug resistance rate of tuberculosis at a single University hospital in Seoul.

The study included 239 pulmonary tuberculosis patients performed with a tuberculosis culture and a drug-sensitivity test at Hanyang University Medical Center from March 1999 to March 2003.

Of the 239 patients included in the study during the 4-year period, 52 patients showed resistance to one or more anti-tuberculosis drug (21.8%). The rate of multi-drug resistance was 12.6%. The resistance rates to isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, streptomycin and pyrazinamide were 18.4%, 13.8%, 11.7%, 6.7% and 8.4%, respectively. Ninety patients had a history of previous anti-tuberculosis treatment, and the rates of the overall drug resistance and multi-drug resistance of these patients were 36.7% and 25.6%, respectively. The patients with drug-resistance showed a higher rate of a previous tuberculosis treatment history (63.5%) than the drug-sensitive group patients (30.5%).

The rate of drug resistant tuberculosis is 21.8%, and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is 12.6%. The rate of drug resistance is higher in those previously treated for tuberculosis.