Although drug susceptible tuberculosis (TB) is a curable disease, spread of rifampicin-resistant TB, including multidrug-resistant (MDR)and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB, is a threat to disease control worldwide [1], in particular in Eastern Europe [2]. XpertMTB/RIF (Xpert; Cepheid Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA) is an accurate [3] and affordable [4] automated PCR-based assay that detects DNA o...

OBJECTIVES The high prevalence of isoniazid-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is often explained by a high mutation rate for this trait, although detailed information to support this theory is absent. We studied the development of isoniazid resistance in vitro, making use of a laboratory strain of M. tuberculosis. METHODS Spontaneous isoniazid-resistant mutants were characterized by molecu...

This review summarizes the in vitro and animal model data available on antibiotic combinations with daptomycin. The majority of studies focus on the clinically relevant combinations of daptomycin with rifampicin or with gentamicin. These studies demonstrate that daptomycin does not adversely affect the activity of other antimicrobial agents that may be administered concomitantly. Overall, addit...

Strategies involving new applications of existing drugs are urgently needed to reduce the time required to cure patients with drug-susceptible and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Use of high-dosage rifampicin is one such approach. Recent data from preclinical animal models (Hu et al., 2015) and clinical studies (Boeree et al., 2015) support a potential role for highdosage rifampicin in TB che...

The emergence of drug resistance is a cause for concern and a threat for any infectious disease intervention programme. For leprosy, a chronic disease with social stigma, drug resistance poses a serious impediment at a stage when there is a dramatic decline in prevalence due to intensive and concerted chemotherapy intervention made by the global community. To effectively meet the challenge of c...

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for leprosy is administered as one single dose of rifampicin (SDR) to the contacts of newly diagnosed leprosy patients. SDR reduces the risk of developing leprosy among contacts by around 60 % in the first 2-3 years after receiving SDR. In countries where SDR is currently being implemented under routine programme conditions in defined areas, questions were raised...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has emerged as a significant global health concern. The most important risk factor for the development of MDR-TB is previous anti-tuberculosis therapy. Category II pulmonary TB includes those patients who had failed previous TB treatment, relapsed after treatment, or defaulted during previous treatment. We carried out this study ...

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is a routinely practised clinical laboratory technique which aids the clinicians with a clear clinical judgement of the drug therapy and optimize the doses if necessary. Rifampicin is the most important and potent component of first line therapy of tuberculosis (TB). Several factors like age, weight, gender, doses and formulations, gastro-intestinal disorders, ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the performance of a molecular line probe assay, GenoType® MTBDRplus, for rapid detection of rifampicin and isoniazid resistance in the Mongolian situation. The sensitivity and specificity of GenoType® MTBDRplus to detect rifampicin and isoniazid resistance-associated mutations in culture specimens and directly in smear-positive clinical specimens w...