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...

Understanding how seasonality shapes the dynamics of tuberculosis (TB) is essential in determining risks of transmission and drug resistance in (sub)tropical regions. We developed a relative fitness-based multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB model incorporated with seasonality and a probabilistic assessment model to assess infection risk in Taiwan regions. The model accurately captures the seasonal tra...

BACKGROUND Pyrazinamide (PZA) is crucial for tuberculosis (TB) treatment, given its unique ability to eradicate persister bacilli. The worldwide burden of PZA resistance remains poorly described. METHODS Systematic PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus searches for articles reporting phenotypic (liquid culture drug susceptibility testing or pyrazinamidase activity assays) and/or genotypic (polyme...

Background:Emergence of drug resistant tuberculosis, particularly multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) has become an obstacle to effective TB control in India. Objectives: To study the sociodemographic and clinical profile of MDR/XDR-TB patients in Kolkata. Methodology: A retrospective study was performed on MDR patients admitted in Jadavpur and Boral TB h...

SETTING National Tuberculosis Programme, Cambodia. OBJECTIVE In a cohort of TB patients, to ascertain the proportion of patients who fulfil the criteria for presumptive MDR-TB, assess whether they underwent investigation for MDR-TB, and the results of the culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST). METHODS A cross sectional record review of TB patients registered for treatment between Ju...

THE REPORT by Royce et al. in this issue of the Journal estimates the burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among notifi ed new cases of TB in countries with high MDR-TB caseloads.1 Previously, the MDR-TB burden among new TB cases was estimated by multiplying the MDR fraction (derived from population representative resistance surveys) by the estimated total incidence of new TB cas...

Executive summary South Africa is one of the 22 highest tuberculosis (TB) burdened countries globally and the occurrence of laboratory-confirmed multi drug resistant TB (MDR–TB) and extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) has long been recognized in South Africa. A drug resistance survey (2012-2014) to quantify and delineate the extent of drug resistance in new and retreatment TB patients nation...

To gain insight into the epidemiology of childhood drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in China that has the second largest burden of TB and the largest number of multidrug resistant (MDR) TB cases in the world, we performed the cross-sectional study to investigate drug resistance of four first-line anti-TB drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin, streptomycin and ethambutol) using Mycobacterium tuberculo...

We evaluated risk factors and treatment outcomes associated with multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) in Germany in 2004-2006. In 177 (4%) of 4,557 culture-positive TB cases, Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates were identified as MDR TB; an additional 7 (0.15%) met criteria for XDR TB. Of these 184 patients, 148 (80%) were born in countries of the for...

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) can affect persons of any age, but it remains unknown whether children are more or less likely than adults to have MDR-TB. Representative drug resistance surveillance data reported to the World Health Organization between 1994 and 2011 were analysed to test the association between MDR-TB and age group (children aged <15 years versus adults aged ≥ 15 yea...