Development of Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis in Bangladesh: A Case-Control Study on Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: To determine the risk factors for developing multidrug resistant tuberculosis in Bangladesh. METHODS: This case-control study was set in central, district and sub-district level hospitals of rural and urban Bangladesh. Included were 250 multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients as cases and 750 drug susceptible tuberculosis patients as controls. We recruited cases from all three government hospitals treating MDR-TB in Bangladesh during the study period. Controls were selected randomly from those local treatment units that had referred the cases. Information was collected through face-to-face interviews and record reviews. Unadjusted and multivariable logistic regression were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Previous treatment history was shown to be the major contributing factor to MDR-TB in univariate analysis. After adjusting for other…