Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) undertook drug resistance studies during 1965- 67 in nine urban areas of the country. However, this exercise was not a surveillance study and did not use strict sampling techniques, the centres being selected more for logistic considerations than for epidemiological reasons. Sputum specimens collected from all patients attending chest clinics were tested for drug susceptibility to streptomycin, Isoniazid, para amino salicyctic acid (PAS) and thioacetazone. The first study was on patients who had denied any history of previous treatment, while in the second study, patients with and without previous chemotherapy was included. The results showed.
