Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is defined as TB that is resistant to both isoniazid [INH] and rifampicin [RMP], two of the first-line drugs used in treating smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is defined as MDR-TB with additional resistance to any fluoroquinolone (FQ) and to at least one of three injectable second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs used in treatment (capreomycin [CPM], kanamycin [KM] or amikacin [AMK]) (WHO October 2006).
During the period January 2005-March 2006, a cluster of XDR-TB cases in a hospital in southern Africa was characterised by extremely high mortality rates. Fifty two of the Fifty three patients died. Of the 44 tested for HIV, all were positive.
To help scale up international efforts to prevent the spread of both MDR-TB and XDR-TB, The Union collaborates with international working groups, publishes recommendations, offers intensive training courses on MDR-TB and XDR-TB (at international and national levels, in English, French and Spanish) and has obtained additional funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to pursue its innovative projects.

Find out more about the WHO/Union work on anti-tuberculosis drug resistance surveillance
Read the 4th report of the WHO/IUATLD Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance, 2002-2007, WHO/HTM/TB/2008.394 (PDF 2,42Mo)
Find out more about MDR-TB and XDR-TB on the WHO website
Click here for the most recent fact sheet on XDR-TB (PDF 402Ko)
Read the February 2008 report on XDR-TB (PDF 27Ko)