[Current aspects of drug resistance of the Koch bacillus in the area of one district].

Some aspects were analyzed, of drug resistance of primary and secondary type in mycobacteria strains from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in a district area, between 1975 and 1979. The results were compared with those obtained in a similar study performed in 1971--1974. While the primary resistance has persisted at an approximately similar level under the aspects of frequency and incidence in the two periods (11% and 13,6%, and 4,0-- and 4,5% respectively), the secondary resistance has marked a significant decrease (36% and 12,3 per 100 000 inhabitants in 1979). The intensive use in the recent years of rifampicin and etambutol in the therapy of tuberculosis explains the new aspects noted in the structure of the primary and of the secondary drug resistance. Thus, an increase was noted in resistance to rifampicin, which, between 1977 and 1979 was above the values recorded for primary resistance to streptomycin.