Premium
ISONIAZID‐RESISTANT TUBERCULOUS SUPERINFECTION
Author(s) -
GREENBERG HARRY B.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1970.tb03668.x
Subject(s) - isoniazid , medicine , superinfection , sputum , population , tuberculosis , bacilli , chemotherapy , microbiology and biotechnology , surgery , immunology , pathology , bacteria , environmental health , virus , biology , genetics
A bstract : Isoniazid resistance developed after one to eleven years of clinical and bacteriologic quiescence in 13 once‐responsive tuberculous patients. A study of the case material disclosed that all but one of the patients had interrupted the initial antituberculosis chemotherapy soon after their sputum samples had become negative. Also, most of the patients had had cavitary lesions that contained large bacterial populations. Residual pulmonary foci of previously dormant tubercle bacilli were likely sources of their isoniazid‐resistant superinfections. Disabled by severe personality disorders and unable to comprehend the gravity of their illnesses, these patients had interrupted chemotherapy, apparently before the medication and their own defense mechanisms had effectively repressed the isoniazid‐resistant mutants in the bacterial population.