Editorial Response: Multidrug‐Resistant Tuberculosis–Globally with Us for the Long Haul

Recent advances in the medical and surgical treatment of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis

“…The full extent of the problem is still largely unknown. The introduction of HIV infection into communities with an already high incidence of MDR TB results in an enormous threat [6]. Nosocomial outbreaks have also been reported in the United States and elsewhere [7].…”

Mycobacterial Infection: A Difficult and Late Diagnosis in Stem Cell Transplant Recipients

“…However, since the onset of the AIDS epidemic and the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis [5,6], there has been an increasing number of reports of MBI in SCT recipients [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. This increase has been attributed to a number of factors,…”

Treatment of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

“…The development of drug-resistant (DR) tuberculosis (TB) has become an increasing concern over the past few decades as the result of numerous factors, including widespread inappropriate or ineffectual use of antimicrobials to treat TB in the absence of drugsusceptibility testing (DST), lack of adequate uptake of systematic approaches to the treatment of drug-susceptible (DS) TB and DR-TB, introduction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) into areas with preexisting DR-TB, provider error, poor adherence to treatment, lack of availability of effective drugs, and transmission of DR strains. 1 The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that annually there are over half a million new cases of rifampicin-resistant (RR) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB; that is, disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis with resistance to isoniazid and rifampin. Globally, 156,000 persons with MDR-TB or RR-TB began treatment in 2018, but the latest data show that only 56% completed treatment successfully.…”