 |
Drug- and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)
The challenge
Anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance is a major public health problem that threatens the success of DOTS, the WHO-recommended treatment approach for detection and cure of TB, as well as global tuberculosis control.
What is DOTS?
How does drug-susceptible TB become drug-resistant TB?
Drug resistance arises due to the improper use of antibiotics in chemotherapy of drug-susceptible TB patients. This improper use is a result of a number of actions, including administration of improper treatment regimens by health-care workers and failure to ensure that patients complete the whole course of treatment. Essentially, drug resistance arises in areas with poor TB control programmes.
Questions about drug-resistant TB
Ministerial meeting of high M/XDR-TB burden countries
Ministers from high M/XDR-TB burden countries met in Beijing, China, during 1-3 April 2009, to urgently address the alarming threat of MDR-TB.
More about the ministerial meeting
Key bottlenecks in M/XDR-TB control and patient care
A major point of discussion at the ministerial meeting in Beijing will be a number of key bottlenecks, which are common across many affected countries planning and beginning to implement the M/XDR-TB response, requiring political decisions within the health system as a whole to overcome.
Key bottlenecks in M/XDR-TB control and patient care
Management of multidrug resistance
-
The Green Light Committee (GLC)
Surveillance of drug resistance in TB
-
The Global Project on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance
-
Resources: publications/documents/software
::
Strengthening tuberculosis laboratories
::
Other WHO sites on drug resistance
::
MDR-TB working group (Stop TB Partnership)
|
|
