Extensive drug resistance in malaria and tuberculosis.
Drug resistance in malaria and in tuberculosis (TB) are major global health problems. Although the terms multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB are precisely defined, the term multidrug resistance is often loosely used when discussing malaria. Recent declines in the clinical effectiveness of antimalarial drugs, including artemisinin-based combination therapy, have prompted the need to revise the definitions of and/or to recategorize antimalarial drug resistance to include extensively drug-resistant malaria. Applying precise case definitions to different levels of drug resistance in malaria and TB is useful for individual patient care and for public health.
Wongsrichanalai
Chansuda
C
US Agency for International Development, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. cwongsrichanalai@usaid.gov
Varma
Jay K
JK
Juliano
Jonathan J
JJ
Kimerling
Michael E
ME
MacArthur
John R
JR
D004351:Drug Resistance; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D018432:Drug Resistance, Multiple; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011634:Public Health; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000188:drug therapy*