Abstract
Worldwide resistance to antituberculosis drugs is jeopardising the control and eventually the elimination of tuberculosis (TB). Patients who are infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to antituberculosis drugs, especially to both isoniazid and rifampicin and thus having multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, need more complicated treatment that lasts longer and consists of a large number of drugs and frequently leads to side effects. In the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), treatment outcome results for all types of drug resistance were below the target of 85% set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), for new pulmonary culture-positive cases and with 34% the reported treatment success rate of MDR-TB cases was substantially below the target of 70% [1, 2]. Of TB cases diagnosed with MDR-TB in 2009 in the EU/EEA, almost two-thirds died during treatment, failed their treatment or defaulted from treatment. This failure to ensure adequate MDR-TB treatment not only puts patients’ lives at risk but also paves the way for XDR TB, and further transmission of the disease. Analysis of the worldwide data for TB from 2007 to 2010, showed proportions of MDR-TB of 3.4% in new TB cases and 19.8% in those previously treated [3]. The proportions of TB cases with MDR-TB are similar in the EU/EEA with 2.6% of the new culture-confirmed TB cases diagnosed with MDR-TB and 18.8% of previously treated culture-confirmed TB cases [2]. In this issue of Eurosurveillance and in the 13 March issue, studies on surveillance of drug-resistant TB, including molecular surveillance, are published. These studies show that drug-resistant TB occurs in diverse settings in Europe and that there is ongoing transmission of drug-resistant TB also in countries with a low TB incidence.
Highlights
Worldwide resistance to antituberculosis drugs is jeopardising the control and eventually the elimination of tuberculosis (TB)
In the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), treatment outcome results for all types of drug resistance were below the target of 85% set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), for new pulmonary culture-positive cases and with 34% the reported treatment success rate of MDR-TB cases was substantially below the target of 70% [1, 2]
Of TB cases diagnosed with MDR-TB in 2009 in the EU/EEA, almost two-thirds died during treatment, failed their treatment or defaulted from treatment
Summary
Worldwide resistance to antituberculosis drugs is jeopardising the control and eventually the elimination of tuberculosis (TB). In the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), treatment outcome results for all types of drug resistance were below the target of 85% set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), for new pulmonary culture-positive cases and with 34% the reported treatment success rate of MDR-TB cases was substantially below the target of 70% [1, 2]. Analysis of the worldwide data for TB from 2007 to 2010, showed proportions of MDR-TB of 3.4% in new TB cases and 19.8% in those previously treated [3].
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