Recent Developments in the Rapid Diagnosis of MDR-TB

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease causing considerable morbidity and mortality among the most vulnerable individuals around the globe. Most active TB disease cases in humans are caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis [1]. Active TB disease typically results from recent infection/re-infection in low-income, high TB burden countries while in high income, low TB incidence countries, it is usually caused by reactivation of a previously acquired infection (reactivation of latent infection) [1,2]. Despite declining trends in TB disease incidence and deaths in the past few years, the disease burden is still enormous. According to the recent WHO estimates, there were 10.4 million active TB disease cases (including 1 million patients coinfected with HIV in 2016 which killed 1.7 million people worldwide [3]. The largest number (45%) of disease cases occurred in South-East Asia region with five countries accounting for ~56% of all TB cases [3]. The incidence varies considerably around the globe and is usually low