Survival and predictors of mortality from multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among patients treated at MDR-TB Referal Hospitals in Ethiopia: A retrospective cohort study

The extent and burden of MDR-TB varies significantly from country to country. In Africa, fewer than half of patients receiving therapy for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) are successfully treated. Even though MDR-TB treatment was started in 2009 survival of MDR-TB treatment particularly of adverse treatment outcome is not studied in national level.  Institution based retrospective cohort study was conducted at randomly selected four treatment Initiative Centers (TIC) u0026 referral hospitals in Ethiopia. Data was collected using standardized checklist by trained professionals through reviewing records of all patients ever enrolled. Cox- proportional hazard regression model was built of the 494 records reviewed, 462 met the inclusion criteria. These patients were followed for 202250 person-day of observation; during the follow up period 38 (8.2%) patients were died making overall incidence density rate of 6.79 (95% CI=5.42-8.78) per 100 Person year. Survival at the end of 1st and 4th month was 98.2% and 92.3% respectively, while the overall mean survival time was 24.82(95%CI=22.8-25.72) months. Drugs side effect 3 (95 % CI [2.5-4.3, medical diagnosis other than TB 3.3 (95 % CI [1.7-5.6], HIV sero-status 2.7 (95 % CI [3.4-9.11] and bigger base line body were independently and significantly predicted mortality of MDR-TB patients. The incidence of death and treatment outcomes was in acceptable ranges, yet it needs due attention. Intervention to further reduce deaths has to focus on patients with co-morbidities, HIV, adverse effect and smaller base line body weight. Key words:  u0027MDR-TB, Survivable, Mortality, Ethiopia.