Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe: still on the increase?

T he recently published World Health Organization (WHO) 2011 Global Report [1] provides important new information on the status of the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic and better estimates are now available on different indicators of TB control. These were possible thanks to new methodologies used to measure the disease, producing more precise figures on mortality, number of children orphaned by TB, budget needs and financial gaps. Overall, a clearer picture of TB in general, and multidrug-resistant (MDR)and extensively drugresistant (XDR)-TB in particular, is now available to guide the necessary national and international public health response [1–4].