The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its latest report on the prevalence, treatment practices, outcomes and costs of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis from 2005 to 2007.
The report is drawn from a sample of 135 patients, 130 of whom had MDR TB and 5 of whom had XDR TB. From 2005 – 2007, there were 364 reported cases of MDR TB in the United States and nine reported cases of XDR TB.
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Here are six key findings from the report.
1. In the sample, 105 patients completed treatment. The median duration for treatment for 32.3 months for patients with XDR TB, 24.1 months for patients with isoniazid/rifampin/rifabutin-plus-resistant TB and 20.0 months for patients with isoniazid/rifampin/rifabutin-only-resistant TB.
2. Providers changed medications for 134 patients a median of seven times during treatment. Thirty-three percent of 988 medication changes were due to adverse events.
3. Eighty-one percent of the patients received an effective, injectable medication, meaning their isolate was not resistant to the medication.
4. The majority of patients — 73 percent — were hospitalized only once for TB. Twenty-nine percent of patients were hospitalized between two and six times.
5. Half of the hospitalizations were due to worsening of the TB disease. Forty-percent were due to needing to initiate or change treatment.
6. The average direct cost per MDR TB patient was $134,000, and the average direct cost per XDR TB patient was $430,000. For patients with non-MDR TB, the average direct costs are approximately $17,000.
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