The problems of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB), extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB, and even ‘‘totally drug-resistant’’ TB (a term that is still debated), have exposed two important clinical issues [1, 2]. The first issue involves figuring out a way to prevent these difficult-to-treat diseases. The second issue is treating patients with drug-resistant TB [3]. In the meantime even ...

The global emergence of multidrugresistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB threatens to derail the efforts of TB control programmes worldwide. From 2000 to 2010, 161 pulmonary MDR-TB cases (including six XDR-TB cases) were reported in Singapore, and of these, 80% occurred among the foreign-born, with an increasing trend seen after 2004. Among new pulmonary TB cas...

As the multidrugand extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) is spreading at alarming rates in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region – about 81,000 (18.4%) of the estimated 440,000 patients worldwide with MDR-TB are considered to live in this region – the WHO Regional Office for Europe has launched an action plan to contain the spread of drugresistant TB in the region by...