title: Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis: a review of current concepts and future challenges.
abstract: Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis are recent global health issues, which makes tuberculosis - after the success of short course treatment during the second half of the last century - a major health challenge. Globalisation, health inequalities, competing economic interests and political instability contribute substantially to the spread of drug-resistant strains, which are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Issues such as increasing transmission of drug-resistant strains, poor diagnostic coverage and a lengthy, toxic treatment need to be overcome by innovative approaches to tuberculosis control, prevention, diagnostics and treatment. This review addresses recent developments and future concepts.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Medical Clinic, Research Center Borstel, Borstel, Germany, and Department of Medicine, University of Namibia School of Medicine, Windhoek, Namibia gguenther@fz-borstel.de.
authors.forename: Gunar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Günther
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D054908:Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents
keywords: Drug-resistant; anti-tuberculosis drugs; resistance testing; tuberculosis; tuberculosis control