Molecular Biological Techniques for Detection of Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR) and Extremely Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR) in Clinical Isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). When people infected with tuberculosis cough, sneeze, talk or spit, the bacilli are propelled into the air. Each person with active TB disease will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year. But people infected with TB bacilli will not necessarily become sick with the disease. The immune system "walls off" the TB bacilli which, protected by a thick waxy coat, can lie dormant for years. When the immune system is weakened, the chances of the infection progressing to disease are higher.