Treatment and outcome in children treated for MDR-TB (n=149 unless otherwise stated)
| Feature/outcome | Variable | Number (%) unless otherwise indicated |
|---|---|---|
| Admitted to hospital | 103 (69.1) | |
| Median duration of admission in months (n=103; IQR) | 5 (3–7) | |
| Treated with injectable drugs (n=142)* | 94 (66.2) | |
| Median duration of injectable drug use (n=94; IQR) | 4 (4–6) | |
| Median duration of total treatment (n=137; IQR)† | 13 (11–18) | |
| Median weight gain (IQR; kg) | 3 months (n=115) | 0.6 (0.2–1.5) |
| 6 months (n=102) | 1.4 (0.7–2.2) | |
| 12 months (n=84) | 2.9 (1.0–4.0) | |
| Median number of months to culture conversion (n=40)‡ | 1 (0.5–2) | |
| Outcome | Cure | 36 (24.2) |
| Probable cure§ | 101 (67.8) | |
| Transferred out | 1 (0.7) | |
| Lost to follow up | 8 (5.4) | |
| Died¶ | 3 (2.0) |
*Excludes patients who died or absconded from hospital prior to the end of the prescribed period of injectable use.
†Excludes patients who died, were transferred out or were lost to follow-up.
‡For children with an initial culture-positive sputum sample with at least one follow-up culture (excludes culture-positive extrapulmonary cases).
§Includes eight patients who stopped their therapy before indicated but were clinically well at follow-up and one patient for whom all drugs were stopped due to severe DRESS syndrome but found to be well after 3 years of follow-up and discharged.
¶Three children died: 14-year-old girl, confirmed pre-XDR pulmonary TB and extensive adult-type disease, absconded from hospital after 3 weeks and was lost to follow-up, found to have died 12 months later; 6-month-old boy, presented with abdominal and pulmonary confirmed MDR-TB, measles and HIV with severe immunosuppression, died after 3 weeks in hospital; 9-year-old boy, presented with extensive, confirmed adult-type pulmonary pre-XDR-TB and HIV, CD4 count 7, died after 3 months from sepsis and hypokalaemia (TB culture negative at that point).
DRESS, drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms; MDR, multidrug resistant; TB, tuberculosis; XDR, extensively drug resistant.