title: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Lithuania - Still a long way ahead.
abstract: Despite the recent advances in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, treatment of the disease, for the most part, remains the same as it was half a century ago. In recent years only two new anti-tuberculosis drugs have been approved by the European Medicines Agency and Food and Drug Administration. Though the prevalence of this disease is slowly decreasing all over Europe, new challenges appear. One of them is multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). This problem is especially prominent in Lithuania, which is one of the 27 high MDR-TB burden countries in the world and falls behind neighboring countries in terms of the prevalence of the disease. The objective of this paper was to review the situation of tuberculosis and MDR-TB in Lithuania, and current available methods of treatment, control and diagnosis of this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonology and Immunology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania. Electronic address: greta.musteikiene@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Greta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Musteikienė
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonology and Immunology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania. Electronic address: skaidrius.miliauskas@kaunoklinikos.lt.
authors.forename: Skaidrius
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miliauskas
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonology and Immunology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania. Electronic address: raimundas.sakalauskas@kaunoklinikos.lt.
authors.forename: Raimundas
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakalauskas
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Astra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vitkauskienė
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonology and Immunology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Marius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Žemaitis
mesh_terms: D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D054908:Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D008097:Lithuania / Q000453:epidemiology; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D015995:Prevalence
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents
keywords: Anti-tuberculosis drugs; Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis; Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; Tuberculosis