MDR and XDR TB

What is MDR TB?

Multi-drug restistant TB (MDR TB)) is just like normal TB. You get it in the same way and it has the same symptoms. The difference is that the bacteria are resistant to the normal TB drugs. Instead a person needs pills and injections for 2 years to get rid of it.

MDR happens in two ways. Either a person catches it from someone else who has MDR TB or else a person starts out with normal TB but does not take their pills properly, missing out some days. The TB bugs then adapt to the drugs and become resistant to them, so that the drugs no longer work against them.

Only 6,000 MDR TB cases received treatment (20% or 1/5th of total reported), indicating the need for a rapid expansion of diagnostic and treatment facilities for people with MDR TB.

If a person with MDR TB doesn't take their treatment properly, the TB bugs may further mutate and become resistant even to the stronger treatment. The TB now becomes XDR TB.

What is XDR TB?

This stands for Extremely Drug Resistant TB.When a person gets XDR TB, there are very few drugs which will kill this disease and the person has a low chance of being cured. In some places, people with XDR TB are put in isolation so that they cannot spread the disease to other people.