"If you diagnose MDR tuberculosis, up front you need to do a check on resistance and should tailor treatment to the individual patient,” van Helden says. However, in the vast majority of countries with a high tuberculosis burden, this is too expensive and logisitically tricky. Last year, a report⁴ by the World Health Organization suggested that in 2010, only 16% of people with MDR tuberculosis received appropriate diagnosis and treatment. 

There are reasons for hope, however. Some countries, such as Latvia and Estonia, have managed to stabilize or even reduce their levels of MDR tuberculosis by putting in place control measures. Cegielski says that faster diagnostic tools are being developed and implemented, although there is some way to go before they can be used to identify all drug-resistant strains. Two new tuberculosis drugs are in the final stages of development, and could also help to replace those being rendered less useful through resistance, he adds.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on August 30, 2012.

1 Comments

1. 1. Annabel Kanabus 10:02 AM 8/31/12

   Maybe this research will help to persuade some governments that they need to stop being so complacent about TB. They need to have sufficient laboratories so that they can check for drug resistant TB as soon as someone is suspected of having it, so that if necessary the person can be provided with the correct drugs rather than continuing to infect other people by using drugs to which they are already resistant.
   It is not always the fault of the person having treatment that they have drug resistant TB, because it is now realised that you can become infected with a drug resistant strain. Also, sometimes the drugs are of poor quality. Better TB education and prevention would also help.
   If so much can be done in 25 years with developing tests and drugs for HIV/AIDS, why can't more be done for TB?
   See www.tbfacts.org for more

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