What is extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB)?
Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is even more serious than MDR-TB. I described a process above whereby the TB germ can learn how the TB medicine usually used against it works. When this happens the TB germ becomes resistant to treatment. When the TB germ recognizes the main preferred medicine used to cure the disease this is called MDR-TB. If the patient with MDR-TB continues to not take their TB medication as their TB doctor or nurse tells them to, then there is a chance that the severity of the resistance shall increase. When MDR-TB becomes even more resistant to the special medicine, called “second-line” TB treatment, then the options for cure start to become more limited. This is because there is a lack of drugs that can cure this form of TB. This is called XDR-TB. It is not known how common XDR-TB is, only to say that it is rare. However, the increasing identification of XDR-TB in some parts of the world is very worrying. MDR-TB and XDR-TB are both transmitted in the same wa
