BACKGROUND Tuberculosis (TB) is an important cause of human suffering and death. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), and extensive drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have emerged as threats to TB control. The association between MDR-TB and HIV infection has not yet been fully investigated. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the ev...

Background. Tuberculosis is a major public health problem, and its control has been facing a lot of challenges with emergence of HIV. The occurrence of multidrug-resistant strain has also propounded the problem especially in children where diagnosis is difficult to make. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is in vitro resistant to isoniazid (H) and rifampicin (R). Paediatric multi-drug re...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the impact that the 2009 changes in tuberculosis treatment in Brazil had on the rates of cure, tuberculosis recurrence, mortality, treatment abandonment, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). METHODS An ordinary least squares regression model was used in order to perform an interrupted time series analysis of secondary data collected from the Brazilian Tuberculos...

Background: Protective immune responses induced in the majority of people infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis enable them to control TB infection. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate CD56 and CD16 positive peripheral blood mononu-clear cells (PBMCs) and leukocyte subsets from multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuber-culosis (MDR-TB), and compare them with nonresistant (NR) TB p...

Despite the recent advances in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, treatment of the disease, for the most part, remains the same as it was half a century ago. In recent years only two new anti-tuberculosis drugs have been approved by the European Medicines Agency and Food and Drug Administration. Though the prevalence of this disease is slowly decreasing all over Europe, new challenges appear. One o...

OBJECTIVE To study MDR-TB isolates and to identify primary and secondary resistance at microbiology laboratory Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. METHODS All samples positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) received during January - September 2004 were reviewed for drug resistance pattern as well as for history of previous antituberculous drugs exposure. RESULTS Out of 216 Mycobac...

BACKGROUND Multidrug resistant tuberculosis(MDR-TB) is becoming a major threat to tuberculosis control programs in Ethiopia. OBJECTIVES To determine risk factors of MDR-TB patients in Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. METHODS Case-control study was conducted from May 2013 to January 2014. Resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid were done molecularly using line probe assay. TB patient...

Before eff ective treatment for tuberculosis became available thousands of people spent time in sanatoria (fi gure) in the hope of a cure through fresh air, sunlight, adequate nutrition, and micronutrients such as calcium. 1 Surgical techniques to promote part or complete lung collapse (eg, artifi cial pneumothorax, plombage, and thoracoplasty) were also used. 1 Although no controlled studies h...

Drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis may account for 10% of the 8 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) that occur annually. Systematic surveys have been undertaken in at least 90 countries. Drug-resistant isolates were found in every site, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB; resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin) in all but eight [1]. Extensively drug-resistan...