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Additional drugs are needed for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Sulfamethoxazole has been shown to
have in vitro activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis; however, there is concern about resistance given the widespread use of
trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis among HIV-infected patients in sub-Saharan Africa. Thirty-eight of 40 Mycobacte-
rium tuberculosis isolates (95%) from pretreatment sputum samples from Ugandan adults with pulmonary TB, including HIV-
infected patients taking trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis, were susceptible with MICs of <38.4 g/ml.
5844 aac.asm.org Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy September 2015 Volume 59 Number 9
Sulfamethoxazole Susceptibility of M. tuberculosis
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health Na-
tional Center for Research Resources through a CTSA KL2TR000440
grant, which also supports C.M.B. The Kawempe Community Health
Study was funded by the Tuberculosis Research Unit (grants N01-
AI95383 and HHSN266200700022C/N01-AI70022 from the National In-
stitutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
FIG 1 Distribution of sulfamethoxazole MICs among pretreatment M. tuber- awarded to W.H.B.).
culosis isolates obtained from patients taking or not taking trimethoprim- The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not
sulfamethoxazole (SXT) at the time of TB diagnosis. necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
We thank John L. Johnson, Case Western Reserve University, for crit-
ical review of the manuscript.
Pretreatment sputum M. tuberculosis isolates from 40 adults We declare no conflicts of interest.
with pulmonary TB were included in this study. Median age was
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