What is drug-resistant TB?
There are times when TB germs are “resistant” to one or more of the TB medicines most often prescribed by doctors. This means that the medicines are not able to kill the TB germs. Drug-resistant TB can develop if people with active TB take their medicine incorrectly, or if they have not been given the right TB medicines. When this happens, combinations of other TB medicines have to be given to the patient. These medicines are not as effective and have to be taken much longer. A person with untreated drug-resistant TB of the lungs or throat can spread drug-resistant germs to other people. Drug-resistant TB can take much longer to cure than regular TB.
TB can usually be treated with a course of four standard, or first-line, anti-TB drugs. If these drugs are misused or mismanaged, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) can develop. MDR-TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have more side-effects. If these second-line drugs are also misused or mismanaged and therefore also become ineffective, extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) can develop. Because XDR-TB is resistant to both first- and second-line drugs, treatment options are seriously limited. Drug-resistant TB is caused by inconsistent or partial treatment: • When patients do not take all their medicines regularly for the required period because they start to feel better, or • Because doctors and health workers prescribe the wrong treatment regimens, or • Because the drug supply is unreliable. It is vital that TB control is managed properly by both healthcare professional and their patients. For More Information on TB: If you wish to rea
Sometimes, TB germs are “resistant” to one or more of the TB medicines most often prescribed by doctors. When this happens combinations of other TB medicines are given to the patient. Drug resistant TB can take longer to cure than regular TB, but most patients can be cured. Drug resistant TB develops when a person with active TB stops taking their medicine too soon, or if they have not been given the right TB medicine. A person with untreated drug resistant TB of the lungs or throat can transmit these resistant germs. If someone gets TB, can it be treated easily? Yes, TB can usually be treated easily. However a person with TB must take the proper medications for many months (usually at least six months). If a TB patient stops the medication early or misses many doses of medicine than the TB can come back. The kind of TB that comes back can be more difficult to treat. How is TB treated? TB is usually treated with four medicine taken together once a day. The medicines are usually Isoniaz
Drug-resistant TB (TB that does not respond to drug treatment) has become a very serious problem in recent years in certain populations. For example, INH-resistant TB is seen among patients from Southeast Asia. The presence of INH-like substances in the cough syrups in that part of the world may play a role in causing the INH resistance. Drug-resistant cases are also often seen in prison populations. However, the major reason for the development of resistance is poorly managed TB care. This can result from poor patient compliance, inappropriate dosing or prescribing of medication, poorly formulated medications, and/or an inadequate supply of medication. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) refers to organisms that are resistant to at least two of the first-line drugs, INH and Rifampin. More recently, extensively (extremely) drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has emerged. These bacteria are also resistant to three or more of the second-line treatment drugs. XDR-TB is seen through
MDR-TB, or multidrug-resistant TB, is a form of the TB bacteria that is resistant to two of the most powerful TB drugs isoniazid and rifampsicin. When these so-called first line drugs don’t work, doctors resort to a second line of drugs. But these aren’t as fast-acting, cause more side effects and are more expensive. One U.S. case of drug-resistant TB last year cost nearly $500,000 to treat. When the bacteria become resistant to the second line of drugs, too, the disease is considered to be XDR-TB, or extensively drug-resistant TB. At that point, treatment options are seriously limited. (Extensively drug-resistant TB is the form Andrew Speaker has. Speaker is currently in isolation in Denver.) Between 1993 and 2006, there were 200,000 confirmed cases of TB reported in the United States. Of these, nearly 3,000 cases were classified as multidrug-resistant (MDR). Of those 3,000 cases, 49 were extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB, with 32 cases reported between 1993 and 1999, and 17 cases b
