Abstract:
Tuberculosis is the number one cause of death from infectious diseases in the world and its drug
resistant forms are a major risk to global health security. Rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis and
detection of drug resistance are very important for timely and appropriate management of
multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Improved detection of patients, earlier diagnosis and timely
identification of rifampicin resistance (the most powerful first line anti TB drug) are very critical
to eliminate TB in the near future. GeneXpert MTB/RIF, is a new assay employing automated
nucleic acid amplification to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis and mutations that enables
rifampicin resistance. The objective of this study is to diagnose and detect Rifampicin resistant
pulmonary tuberculosis by using GeneXpert and to evaluate associated risk factors among
presumptive tuberculosis patients. Methods and materials: a laboratory based cross sectional
prospective study was conducted from February to May 2020. The source population was all TB
suspected patients visiting University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital.285 patients
were participated for the study. Sputum samples were collected from TB suspected patients and
processed using GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay instrument and data were analyzed using SPSS
software. Results: 158 (55.4%) of the total patients were male in which 26 (16.5%) were positive
for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Of the total positive patients, 4 (8.89%) have Rifampicin
Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis all of which were had previous TB history. 31 (19.5%) of
the affected individuals were in the age group of 25 -54 years. 21 (7.4 %) of the total patients were
HIV positive in which 15(71.4%) were positive for TB. conclusion and recommendation: A
considerable prevalence of PTB in the study area was observed and the magnitude of RR TB was
high. PTB is still a public health problem in Ethiopia and there is a need for collaborative
prevention and control activities in the study area. Therefore strongly examining patients having
cough especially by using molecular diagnostic techniques like Genexpert and other molecular
diagnostic technologies is important to control and prevent transmission of drug susceptible TB
and Rifampicin resistant TB
