Drug-resistance--a challenge for tuberculosis control in the European Union and European Economic Area.

Worldwide resistance to antituberculosis drugs is jeopardising the control and eventually the elimination of tuberculosis (TB). Patients who are infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to antituberculosis drugs, especially to both isoniazid and rifampicin and thus having multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB, need more complicated treatment that lasts longer and consists of a large number of drugs and frequently leads to side effects. In the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), treatment outcome results for all types of drug resistance were below the target of 85% set by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), for new pulmonary culture-positive cases and with 34% the reported treatment success rate of MDR-TB cases was substantially below the target of 70% [1, 2]. Of TB cases diagnosed with MDR-TB in 2009 in the EU/EEA, almost two-thirds died during treatment, failed their treatment or defaulted from treatment. This failure to ensure adequate MDR-TB treatment not only puts patients’ lives at risk but also paves the way for XDR TB, and further transmission of the disease.