Drug-resistant TB spreading fast, says WHO

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading faster than feared.

According to a new who report, Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in the world, about 0.5 million new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (mdr-tb) are detected every year, accounting for 5 per cent of 9 million new cases of tb. India, China and Russia carry the largest mdr-tb burden, while China and India account for nearly 50 per cent of the global caseload. mdr-tb, mainly caused by the failure to complete first-line treatment, does not respond to the standard treatment. who is currently revising its plan to diagnose and treat all mdr-tb patients by 2015.

MDR-TB among new TB cases 1994-2007

Sub national coverage in India, China, Russia, Indonesia