Identification of primary drug resistance to rifampin in Mycobacterium leprae strains from leprosy patients in Amazonas state, Brazil.

The aim of this study was to identify polymorphisms in the folp1, gyrA and rpoB genes in leprosy patients treated in Amazonas state, Brazil. Among 197 slit-skin smears samples from untreated or relapsed patients we found three cases of primary resistance to rifampicin and one confirmed case of multidrug resistance.