TACKLING EXTENSIVELY DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS (XDR-TB)

摘要

Tuberculosis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The rise and spread of drug resistance is threatening global efforts of tuberculosis control. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a severe form of drug-resistant TB, defined as tuberculosis caused by a Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin among the first-line antitubercular drugs (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; MDR-TB) in addition to resistance to any fluoroquinolone and at least one of the three injectable second-line drugs (SLDs), namely amikacin, kanamycin and/or capreomycin. The first reports of XDR-TB appeared in 2006. Since then, a total of 84 countries have reported cases of XDR-TB. The true scale of XDR-TB is unknown as many countries lack the necessary equipment and capacity to accurately diagnose it.