Trend in rifampicin-, multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in Italy, 2009-2016

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that are rifampicin-resistant (RR), multidrug-resistant (MDR) (strains resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin) or extensively drug-resistant (XDR) (MDR strains resistant to any fluoroquinolone (FQ) and to at least one second-line injectable drug (SLID): kanamycin, capreomycin or amikacin) is a major threat to TB control globally. All three groups require treatment with second-line drugs (SLDs) [1]. We previously reported that MDR- and XDR-TB in Italy occurred mostly in foreign-born persons (FBPs) [2, 3], but no major information on RR, MDR or XDR trends in FBPs and Italian-born persons (IBPs) were shown. Here, we documented these trends from 2009 to 2016 (figure 1).