Addressing the Threat of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: A Realistic Assessment of the Challenge. Workshop Summary

摘要

Tuberculosis (TB) kills more than 4,500 people each day worldwide; approximately 1.7 million TB deaths occurred in 2006 alone. TB is second only to AIDS as the leading infectious disease--related cause of adult deaths. Although antibiotic treatment for TB was discovered more than half a century ago, an estimated one-third of the world's population is currently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and 9.2 million new cases of active TB are estimated to occur around the world annually. A large percentage of TB cases can be treated effectively with available antibiotics. But multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) strains of TB that are resistant to the two principal first-line TB drugs--is a major and growing global problem. While MDR TB has been under control in the United States since it was first recognized, worldwide an estimated 4.8 percent of all new and previously treated TB cases diagnosed in 2006--nearly half a million cases--were MDR according to the World Health Organization. These cases are considered by many to be a substantial underestimate.