Mycobacterium tuberculosis Beijing genotype and risk for treatment failure and relapse, Vietnam

Among 2,901 new smear-positive tuberculosis cases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 40 cases of treatment failure and 39 relapsing cases were diagnosed. All initial and follow-up Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates of these case-patients had (nearly) identical restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns, and the Beijing genotype was a significant risk factor for treatment failure and relapse (odds ratio 2.8, 95% confidence interval 1.5 to 5.2).