Objectives 

To document the existence of drug resistance in a tuberculosis treatment programme that adheres strictly to the DOTS principles (directly observed treatment, short course) and to determine the extent of drug resistance in a prison setting in one of the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Design 

Case study.

Setting 

Central Penitentiary Hospital in Baku, the referral centre for tuberculosis patients from all prisons in Azerbaijan.

Subjects 

Prisoners with tuberculosis : 28 selected patients not responding clinically or bacteriologically to the standard treatment (group 1) and 38 consecutive patients at admission to the programme (group 2).

Main outcome measures 

Drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains grown from sputum.

Results 

All the non-responding patients (group 1) had strains resistant to at least one drug. 25 (89%) of the non-responding patients and nine (24%) of the consecutive patients had M tuberculosis strains resistant to both rifampicin and isoniazid.

A further 17 patients in group 2 had strains resistant to one or more first line drugs.

Conclusions 

Drug resistant M tuberculosis strains are common in prisons in Azerbaijan.

Tuberculosis problems tend to be worse in prisons, but prisoners and former prisoners may have an important role in the transmission of tuberculosis, particularly of drug resistant forms, in the community. (...)