Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) remains an important public health problem with an estimated 10.4 million new cases diagnosed in 2015 (1). Of these, approximately 4.3 million cases went undiagnosed or unreported, posing a major hurdle to the eradication of TB (1). The control of TB is further threatened by the HIV epidemic and the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, defined as resistance to rifampicin and isoniazid. In 2015, there were an estimated 480,000 new cases of MDR-TB and an additional 100,000 people were diagnosed with rifampicin-resistant TB. These cases result in continued transmission in communities and health care settings due to the detection and treatment gap, with only 1 million cases (30% of the 3.4 million bacteriologically confirmed cases or 10% of all cases globally) having had a drug susceptibility test for rifampicin in 2015. The WHO has therefore included early diagnosis of TB and universal drug susceptibility testing as one of its core priorities for global TB control (2).
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
