Tuberculosis infections resistant to both the first- and second-line antibiotics used against TB are increasing around the world, health officials said Thursday. This soaring health crisis is pretty disturbing.
To reveal this, from 2000 to 2004, the CDC and WHO surveyed a network of 25 tuberculosis laboratories on six continents. It found that one in 50 TB cases around the world is resistant not only to the usual first-choice TB treatments, but also to many medications, which represent the second line of defense.
Dr. Marcos Espinale, executive secretary of the World Health Organization’s Stop TB Partnership, “It’s basically a death sentence. If people are failing first- and second-line drugs and we don’t have in the pipeline a new drug for immediate use, that’s a crisis.”
Via: MSNBC