RESUMO
SETTING: Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, where overall drug resistance and multidrug resistance among adult new tuberculosis (TB) cases were respectively 16.4% and 1.1% in 1998. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of drug resistance among children with tuberculosis and to compare the epidemiological and clinical features of TB in children with drug-resistant and drug-susceptible TB. METHODS: All strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis obtained from children aged 0-15 years at Bangui Paediatric Hospital were prospectively collected from April 1998 to June 2000, and susceptibility testing was performed for each specimen. The children's epidemiological and clinical data were recorded. RESULTS: Susceptibility results were available for 165/190 children with M. tuberculosis. Overall drug resistance and multidrug resistance were 15.2% and 0.6%, respectively. Isoniazid and streptomycin were the only drugs associated with TB monoresistance. No significant difference was found in the epidemiological or clinical data of children infected with a resistant strain and those infected with a susceptible strain. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of drug resistance in childhood is similar to that observed in adult new TB cases in the same period. Surveillance will continue to be performed in Bangui periodically to assess the trend of true drug resistance among new TB cases.