Reply: Resistance to secondline drugs in multidrugresistant tuberculosis

摘要

The cohort study by Tracy Dalton and colleagues (Oct 20, p 1406), which finds that the prevalence of extensively drug-resistant (XDR) and second-line drug-resistant tuberculosis in nine countries is higher than current WHO estimates, confirms the alarming rates of resistance found by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). In our Uzbekistan tuberculosis programme, 190 (27%) of 709 patients with MDR tuberculosis had pre-XDR disease (defined as resistance to any fluoroquinolone or injectable second-line drug).