Anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug resistance is a major public health problem that threatens the success of DOTS, the WHO-recommended treatment approach for detection and cure of TB, as well as global tuberculosis control.
How does drug-susceptible TB become drug-resistant TB?
Drug resistance arises due to the improper use of antibiotics in chemotherapy of drug-susceptible TB patients. This improper use is a result of a number of actions, including administration of improper treatment regimens by health-care workers and failure to ensure that patients complete the whole course of treatment. Essentially, drug resistance arises in areas with poor TB control programmes.
A major point of discussion at the ministerial meeting in Beijing will be a number of key bottlenecks, which are common across many affected countries planning and beginning to implement the M/XDR-TB response, requiring political decisions within the health system as a whole to overcome.
