First insights into the genetic characteristics and drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis population collected during the first national tuberculosis prevalence survey of Lao PDR (2010–2011)

Table 2 Characteristics of the patients infected with EAI (76.7%) or Beijing isolates (14.4%)

Characteristics	Patients infected with EAI, n = 155 (%)	Patients infected with Beijing, n = 29 (%)	P-value
Age group (years)
15–34	16 (10.3)	10 (34.5)	0.002
35–64	85 (54.8)	10 (34.5)
≥ 65	54 (34.8)	9 (31.0)
Sex
Men	105 (67.7)	15 (51.7)	0.09
Women	50 (32.3)	14 (48.3)	0.09
Strata
Rural	134 (86.5)	22 (75.9)	0.14
Urban	21 (13.5)	7 (24.1)	0.14
Regions
North	58 (37.4)	17 (58.6)	< 0.001
Centre	45 (29.0)	12 (41.4)
South	52 (33.6)	0
Anti-TB drug resistance status^a
Sensitive ^b	147 (94.8)	24 (82.8)	0.03
Resistant^c	8 (5.2)	5^d (17.2)	0.03

^aTested with the MTBDR plus test for Rifampicin (RIF) and isoniazid (INH) resistance
^bSensitive to INH and RIF
^cIsolates were considered resistant when they were INH and/or RIF-resistant
^dContains two isolates resistant to both INH and RIF (MDR-TB)

ISSN: 1471-2334