Changes in Isoniazid Resistance of Tubercle Bacilli after Cessation of Treatment: Report by the Laboratory Subcommittee of the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Trials Committee, Medical Research Council M.R.C. ISONIAZID TRIAL: REPORT NO. 6

Abstract

The use of isoniazid in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis became widespread in the spring of 1952. It was soon shown that when this drug was given alone bacterial resistance developed frequently and rapidly (Medical Research Council, 1952); approximately two-thirds of positive cultures from patients at the end of a three-month course of isoniazid alone were resistant to the drug, many of them to a high degree. Much confirmatory evi- dence followed from other countries (Dye, 1953; Ferebee and Long, 1953; Lotte and Poussier, 1953; Swedish National Association Against Tuberculosis, 1953).