‘Virtually untreatable’ TB found:
TB presently causes about 1.7 million deaths a year worldwide, but researchers are worried about the emergence of strains that are resistant to drugs.
Drug resistance is caused by poor TB control, through taking the wrong types of drugs for the incorrect duration.
Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR TB), which describes strains of TB that are resistant to at least two of the main first-line TB drugs, is already a growing concern.
Globally, the WHO estimates there are about 425,000 cases of MDR TB a year, mostly occurring in the former Soviet Union, China and India.
TB Related posts: Extensively Drug-resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB), May 2007 – Deadly TB Strain is Spreading, WHO Warns, Mar 2007 – Tuberculosis Pandemic Threat, Jan 2007
Related: Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance – Overuse of Antibiotics