Twenty Years of Global Surveillance of Antituberculosis-Drug Resistance

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 375; no. 11; pp. 1081 - 1089
• Main Authors: Zignol, Matteo, Dean, Anna S, Falzon, Dennis, van Gemert, Wayne, Wright, Abigail, van Deun, Armand, Portaels, Françoise, Laszlo, Adalbert, Espinal, Marcos A, Pablos-Méndez, Ariel, Bloom, Amy, Aziz, Mohamed A, Weyer, Karin, Jaramillo, Ernesto, Nunn, Paul, Floyd, Katherine, Raviglione, Mario C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 15.09.2016
• Subjects: Antitubercular Agents - therapeutic use; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Global Health; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Mycobacterium tuberculosis - drug effects; Population Surveillance; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - drug therapy; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - epidemiology; Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant - history; Belarus; United States > US; Estonia
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsr1512438

The emergence and dissemination of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a global threat to health. In this report, surveillance of drug-resistant tuberculosis during the past 20 years is described. Antimicrobial resistance represents a major threat to global health and security. In 2014, the World Health Assembly called on all nations and the international community to take every necessary measure to control it, including surveillance of its emergence and spread. 1 The development of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis was first documented in the late 1940s, soon after antibiotic therapy was introduced for tuberculosis treatment. 2 It quickly became obvious that combination chemotherapy could prevent the emergence of drug resistance 3 and that patients infected with drug-resistant strains were less likely to be cured. 4 Nevertheless, it was only in the early 1990s that . . .