Jornal de Bacteriologia e Parasitologia

Abstrato

Recent Advances in Effective Management of Patients with Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB)

Suhail Ahmad

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease worldwide. Most active TB disease cases in humans are caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis [1]. Some cases in Africa are caused by Mycobacterium africanum while Mycobacterium bovis (bovine bacillus) can also cause TB in individuals who consume unpasteurized milk [1,2]. The global burden of TB is still enormous. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 10 million new active TB diseases cases and 1.451 million deaths occurred in 2018, making TB as one of the top 10 killers and the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent [3]. Near 87% of TB cases occurred in 30 high TB burden countries and two-third of all cases in only eight (India, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa) countries [3]. Most active TB disease cases in high TB burden countries occur as a result of recent infection/reinfection while in low TB incidence countries, they usually arise as a result of reactivation of latent infection, acquired few to several years earlier [2,4,5].