Tuberculosis is ranked second among the infectious agents with highest mortality rates. According the WHO, 8.7 million people were infected with TB in 2011 with 1.4million deaths. This can be translated to approximately 1,500 deaths every day where 10% of these are children. Despite the high incidence rate, there appeared to be a silver lining after investigations showed a decrease in new infections and an estimated 85% success rate in treatment.
Then there was the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and the same drugs that were once effective became worthless against this strain of tuberculosis. MDR-TB is caused by organisms that are resistant to the first line anti-TB drugs, both isoniazid and rifampicin. This reduced the number of drugs that can safely treat patients with this strain of TB.
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