ABSTRACT
One thousand eight hundred and forty three Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (M.tuberculosis) strains isolated between 1992–2002 from 27.436 clinical specimens were evaluated for their drug resistance to streptomycin (S), isoniazid (H), rifampin (R) and ethambuthol (E).The drug resistance of 1843 M.tuberculosis strains was assessed by radiometric proportion method in Bactec 460 TB system(Becton Dickinson). Resistance to one or more of the drugs was found in 594(32.23%) strains. Resistance to H among the other drugs was the most common (27.07%). The number of multidrug resistant M.tuberculosis strains was detected as 283 (15.35%) within total strains. The results obtained in this study show that the rate of resistant strains circulating in the community are very high, so, we concluded that the national tb control programme must be reexamined urgently in our country.