The increased prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria in combination with the relatively limited development of new antibiotics presents a serious threat to public health. In chicken, especially Extended-Spectrum ß-Lactamase (ESBL) carrying Enterobacteriaceae are often asymptomatically present but can infect humans. Due to their broad range antimicrobial activity cathelicidins and othe...

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a global public health problem affecting women of childbearing age. Little is known, however, about the safety of the drugs used to treat MDR-TB during pregnancy. We describe 7 patients who were treated for MDR-TB during pregnancy. These patients had chronic tuberculosis that had caused extensive parenchymal damage and had high-grade resistance to an...

The complete genome sequence for the reference strain Acinetobacter baumannii CIP 70.10 (ATCC 15151) was established. The strain was isolated in France in 1970, is susceptible to most antimicrobial compounds, and is therefore of importance for comparative genome analyses with clinical multidrug-resistant (MDR) A. baumannii strains to study resistance development and acquisition in this emerging...

Introduction: The Republic of Djibouti is an African country that exhibits one of the highest incidence rate of tuberculosis in the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among new cases. Methodology: We studied retrospectively every tuberculosis case diagnosed over a 12-month period in patients hospitalized at the French Military Hospita...

Peng et al.[1] reported that the MDR‐TB burden among the new tuberculosis (TB) patients accounted for more than 1/4th of all multidrug‐resistant TB (MDR‐TB) cases in the past 5 years in Zhejiang province, although the identified rate of MDR‐TB among 9830 new TB cases was only 2.0%. Drug‐resistant TB, especially MDR‐TB, is a major threat to the control of TB worldwide. However, due to high cost ...

The paper by Jones-López et al. in this week’s PLoS Medicine [1] (hereinafter ‘‘the Uganda study’’) illustrates the challenge of conducting research in resource-constrained settings. At the time the study was proposed and initiated, the prevalence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB) in Uganda was unknown. Further, second-line therapy for MDR-TB, available in other settings, was not avai...

Although the rate of increase in the TB incidence rate is decreasing, the global TB notification grew by 1% between 2003 and 2004, the last year for which data are available. This continued increase is largely the result of the striking increase in cases in sub-Saharan Africa and, to a lesser extent, in the former USSR. Whilst the worsening of the TB incidence in Africa is due to the HIV epidem...

BACKGROUND Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a rising global threat to public health and concerted efforts for its treatment are diluted if the outcomes are not successful, loss to follow up (LFU) being one of them. It is therefore necessary to know the proportion and the associated reasons for LFU and devise effective patient-centered strategies to improve retention in care. METHO...

In most countries with large drug resistant tuberculosis epidemics, only those cases that are at highest risk of having MDRTB receive a drug sensitivity test (DST) at the time of diagnosis. Because of this prioritized testing, identification of MDRTB transmission hotspots in communities where TB cases do not receive DST is challenging, as any observed aggregation of MDRTB may reflect systematic...

This case report describes an HIV-positive patient with recurrent tuberculosis in Uganda. After several failed courses of treatment, the patient was diagnosed with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). As adequate in-patient facilities were unavailable, we advised the patient to remain at home, and he received treatment at home via his family and a community nurse. The patient had a succe...