Mycobacterium tuberculosis and multidrug resistance (MDR): a review

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) can be prevented through vaccination with the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, but it still poses a major global health threat, particularly in resource limited settings of the developing countries and resistance is a secondary compounder in the affected patients. The review highlights on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and multidrug resistance among other things.
Methodology: Previously published data were collected on things like: The causative agent, epidemiology of multidrug resistance (MDR), tuberculous treatment, Diagnosis and how resistance is developed.
Results: The review revealed that, antituberculous drugs are mainly divided into first-line drugs Isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), ethambutol (EMB), pyrazinamide (PZA) and streptomycin (SM) and second-line drugs, which are sub Sub divided into fluoroquinolones, like ofloxacin (OFX) and injectables like Kanamycin (KAN). The review also revealed that MDR is a global threat and diagnosis could be done through absolute concentration method, resistance ratio method and proportions methods. It also revealed two principal pathways, for development of active drugresistant TB namely acquired (secondary) drug resistance and primary drug resistance.
Conclusion: It could be concluded therefore that tuberculosis and drug resistance are complications that leads to serious situations among TB patients across the globe.