Ismail Ceyhan, Hülya Simsek, Ahmet Arslanturk, Nurhan Albayrak, Figen Sezen and Gülnur Tarhan
Frequency, rate and trend of extensively drug-resistant [XDR] tuberculosis [TB] in Turkey are not clear and not known very well. In this study, it was aimed to try to determine and to confirm the frequency of XDR-TB strains among Multi-Drug Resistant [MDR] TB cases. A total of 4119 M. tuberculosis strains were analyzed. The strains were collected from 19 TB centers [hospitals or regional TB laboratories] including National TB Reference Laboratory [NTRL]. Two hundred ninety-seven 297 [7.2%] M. tuberculosis strains were detected as MDR-TB. Among all MDRTB cases, 37 [12.5%] were pre-XDR-TB, and 8 [2.7%] were XDR-TB.