摘要：The Australian Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory Network collected and analysed laboratorydata on new cases of disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in the year 2001.A total of 771 cases were identified, representing an annual reporting rate of 4.0 cases oflaboratory-confirmed tuberculosis per 100,000 population. The predominant specimen type wassputum, (n=369) and a further 111 were collected at bronchoscopy. Smears were positive for 214of 369 (58.0%) sputum and 42 of 111 (37.8%) bronchoscopy specimens respectively. Sevenchildren (male n=5, female n=2) under 10 ye a rs of age had bacteriologically confirmedtuberculosis. A total of 69 isolates (8.9%), comprising 67 M. tuberculosis, one M. africanum, andone M. bovis, were resistant to at least one of the anti-tuberculosis agents. Excluding the M. bovis isolate, 61 of 64 (93.5%) were classified as having initial resistance, three had acquiredresistance, and no data were available on the presence or absence of previous treatment for fourpatients. Resistance to at least isoniazid and/or rifampicin was noted for 67 isolates (8.7%), withresistance to both isoniazid and rifampicin (i.e. defined as multidrug-resistant disease) observedin 12 (1.6%) isolates. All of the multidrug-resistant isolates were M. tuberculosis, 10 were from therespiratory tract. The country of birth was known for 63 of 68 (92.6%) patients with a drug-resistant strain of M. tuberculosis or M. africanum; five were Australian-born and 58 (92.1%) hadmigrated from a total of 22 countries. One hundred and seven respiratory specimens had anucleic acid amplification testing performed; 89 of 90 (98.9%) smear positives were nucleic acidamplification testing positive, whilst only 13 of 17 (76.5%) smear negative specimens werenucleic acid amplification testing positive. The 2001 laboratory data reveals a stable incidencerate and level of drug resistance in isolates from Australian patients with tuberculosis
关键词：Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Mycobacterium bovis; ;laboratory diagnosis; ;tuberculosis; drug resistance
