A study of more than 1,200 adults worldwide reveals that the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) strains that are resistant to both first- and second-line treatments is higher than previously realized. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis strains were detected in 6.4 percent of all samples analyzed, according to the results of the study, published online yesterday (August 29) in The Lancet, with some countries, such as South Korea, having a prevalence of around 15 percent.
Strains resistant to second-line treatments—those administered after initial treatments have failed—were found in 44 percent of the patients, with some countries such as Latvia having patient populations where as high as 62 percent of infections were resistant.
“Most international recommendations for TB control have been developed for MDR [multidrug-resistant] TB prevalence of up to around 5 percent,” Sven Hoffner, Associate Professor at the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, wrote in an accompanying comment. “Yet now we face ...
