Facing Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis — A Hope and a Challenge

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Abstract
As of June 2008, a total of 49 countries worldwide reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) at least one case of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Since its first description in March 2006,1 this disease has become the most alarming issue in international tuberculosis control and one that seriously risks compromising the progress observed in many countries over the past decade.2 Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which is especially frequent among drug-resistant cases in the former Soviet Union, has been linked with very poor treatment outcomes and deemed potentially untreatable in both developing and rich countries.3