Bacterial Sensitivity and Course of Tuberculosis in Hospitalized Patients

¹ Muñiz Hospital and the Department of tuberculosis, Buenos Aires Medical School

Investigations relative to bacterial resistance are presented in a group of patients treated between October, 1957 and March, 1960.

Of 80 cases previously untreated with specific drugs, only one patient showed tubercle bacilli resistant to isoniazid. Of patients who had been given specific therapy prior to their hospital admission, tubercle bacilli were found to be resistant to isoniazid in 38.2 per cent, to streptomycin in 5.6 per cent and to both drugs in 12.3 per cent.

Satisfactory therapeutic results were recorded in 91 per cent of previously untreated patients who had tubercle bacilli sensitive to specific drugs. The corresponding figure was 43.5 per cent in patients who had been treated prior to admission.

Of instances with tubercle bacilli resistant to specific drugs, only 34 per cent showed favorable response to treatment.