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Emergence of primary drug resistance to rifampicin in Mycobacterium leprae strains from leprosy patients in India.

Abstract

Rifampicin (RIF) is an important first-line antibiotic for the treatment of mycobacterial infections including leprosy. It is a bactericidal antibiotic that inhibits the bacterial RNA polymerase. Rifampicin resistance is therefore a valuable surrogate marker for drug resistance in leprosy. The aim of the study was to identify mutation in the rpoB (Rifampicin), folP (Dapsone) and gyrA (Ofloxacin) genes by molecular methods in leprosy patients from the TLM hospitals in India. Among 215 cases, we detected seven cases of primary drug resistance to rifampicin.

More information

Type
Journal Article
Author
Lavania M
Nigam A
Turankar R
Singh I
Gupta P
Kumar S
Sengupta U
John A