Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis

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Abstract
The era of modern, predictably effective tuberculosis chemotherapy began in 1952. Since then, strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis have acquired resistance to various drugs, thus compromising both treatment and control programs. Most ominously, the rising prevalence of multidrug-resistant strains (defined here as M. tuberculosis resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, with or without resistance to other drugs) has resulted in many cases of marginally treatable, often fatal, disease. The care of patients with documented multidrug-resistant tuberculosis will be the focus of this report. I shall also examine briefly the origins, biologic mechanisms, and epidemiology of drug resistance, its impact on the outcome . . .