Quality assurance programme for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the WHO/IUATLD Supranational Laboratory Network: first round of proficiency testing.

Abstract

Drug susceptibility procedures for the testing of isoniazid and rifampicin, the two anti tuberculosis drugs which define multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, are highly reliable within the SRL network. Procedures for drug susceptibility testing of streptomycin and ethambutol are still in need of standardization.