Proportion of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Mycobacterium tuberculosis Co-Infected Patients in Korea

Much controversy surrounds the issue of whether HIV infection is a risk factor for developing multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of and risk factors for MDR-TB in HIV-infected patients at the National Medical Center of Korea. We reviewed the medical records of HIV/TB co-infected patients from January 2005 to May 2011; the drug susceptibility profiles were available for 55 patients. Of these, 32.7% had MDR-TB, which was approximately 3.6 times higher than the prevalence among the general population. Additionally, there were more additional AIDS-defining clinical illnesses in the MDR-TB group than in the non-MDR-TB group (27.8% vs 5.4%, P = 0.032). These results suggest that HIV infection and HIV-related immunosuppresion may contribute to the development of MDR-TB.