Tuberculosis Infection in the 21st Century: Can We Win?

Tuberculosis continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the 21st century. The rise of multiresistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with an increase of disseminated tuberculosis due to the higher numbers of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infected patients is threatening to compromise tuberculosis control worldwide. Here we report a rare case of disseminated tuberculosis, presenting with a wide spectrum of extra pulmonary involvement including prostate and leptomeningeal, and evolving to a fatal outcome due to lack of response to all tuberculostatic drugs used. This paper highlights the clinical complexity of this disease, and the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges that one faces when treating patients with tuberculosis. *Corresponding author: Maria do Rosário André, Department of Medical Oncology, Instituto Português de Oncologia de Lisboa Francisco Gentil, Rua Professor Lima Basto, 1099-023 Lisboa, Portugal, Tel: +351 962778625; Fax: +351 217229845; E-mail: [email protected] Received May 30, 2012; Accepted June 25, 2012; Published June 30, 2012 Citation: André MR, Pereira A, Antunes F (2012) Tuberculosis Infection in the 21st Century: Can We Win? J Clin Case Rep 2:160. doi:10.4172/2165-7920.1000160 Copyright: © 2012 André MR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.