To the Editor:
Despite progress in tuberculosis (TB) control, the response to the multidrug- resistant (MDR) TB and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB epidemic continues to be limited. The proportion of MDR-TB patients who successfully completed treatment varied from 44% (Eastern Mediterranean Region) to 58% (South-East Asia Region) [1]. Overall, treatment success was 48%, while 28% of cases were reported as lost to follow-up or had no outcome information [1]. The Global Plan's target for 2015 of achieving at least 75% treatment success in MDR-TB patients was only reached by 30 out of 107 countries [1].
In the present paper, we evaluated the treatment outcomes of M/XDR-TB patients in Portugal. Patients with pulmonary TB resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, who started treatment at some point between January 2000 and December 2008, were selected from the national database, which integrates the data from the mandatory registration of TB cases. The evaluation of treatment outcomes was conducted from February to April 2011. Patients were classified as having received no previous treatment for TB or as having received previous treatment(s) for TB. The World Health Organization (WHO) standard definitions were used to MDR-TB, XDR-TB and treatment outcome (treatment success, died, failure, default and transferred out) [1, 2]. Was analysed the relationship between treatment outcome and clinical and demographic factors. It were also identified the predictors of poor outcome in a population of M/XDR-TB patients. The association between explanatory variables and …
