Recurrence after treatment for pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

Abstract

We estimated the proportion of recurrence within 2 years among adults cured by individualized multidrug-resistant tuberculosis regimens in Peru. Among 310 individuals with at least 24 months of follow-up, 16 experienced an episode of recurrent tuberculosis. If we assume the worst for treatment effectiveness-that all 16 episodes were caused by the original tuberculosis strain-then 5.2% (95% confidence interval, 3.0%-8.2%) experienced true relapse. This is an upper- bound estimate of relapse on which new regimens must improve. © 2010 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.