Prevalence, Risk Factors and Outcomes of Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis Identified by Genexpert Mtb/rif Assay in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) has been the top-ranked infectious disease in human history for a very long time. According to World Health Organization (WHO), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been high HIV/TB co-infection burden area for decades. However, MDR-TB were underreported in DRC due to the incompetent healthcare infrastructure and the lack of diagnostic method. Method: This study aims to provide more epidemiological information on the prevalence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) infection identified by GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay, which is a new diagnostic method. The data were collected at the General Referral Hospital of Bukavu, DRC. Subject population was the suspected TB patients who visited the hospital of Bukavu, DRC. Retrospective analyses were done based on those data to identify risk factors. In addition, multiple statistical analyses, including multivariate logistic regression, Pearson Chi-square test were performed to investigate how the TB prevalence and treatment outcomes relate to risk factors and GeneXpert assay.