What is Multi Drug Resistant TB?

Multi Drug Resistant TB is often abbreviated to MDR-TB. MDR TB is a particular type of drug resistant TB. It means that the TB bacteria that a person is infected with are resistant to two of the most important TB drugs, isoniazid (INH) and rifampicin (RMP). If bacteria are resistant to certain TB drugs this means that the drugs don’t work. Other drugs then need to be taken by the person if they are to be cured of TB.Continue Reading W.B.C.S. Main 2018 Question Answer – Medical Science – MDR Tuberculosis.

What is RR-TB?

People with RR-TB are resistant to rifampicin. They may or may not have resistance to other drugs. MDR/RR-TB means patients with MDR-TB as well as patients with TB resistant to rifampicin.

For many years Multi Drug Resistant TB has been the most basic form of drug resistant TB, and the type of TB for which many statistics were collected. Then in 2016 RR-TB started to become more widely discussed because many people are now being diagnosed with TB using the Genexpert test. The Genexpert test detects resistance to rifampicin as well as resistance to isoniazid

How do you get MDR-TB or RR-TB?

There are two main ways that you can get MDR TB or RR-TB. Firstly you can get it if you don’t take your drugs exactly as you have been instructed to by your health care provider. You may also get it if you are not taking the correct drugs. This could possibly be because your bacteria are resistant to more drugs than your health care provider realised. Maybe you have undiagnosed XDR-TB. This is referred to as acquired TB.

You can also get MDR or RR-TB if you get TB bacteria from another person who already has MDR or RR-TB. This is known as primary TB. It used to be believed that most people have acquired TB, but now it is realised that many more people than were previously realised have primary TB.

Treatment of Multi Drug Resistant TB

In May 2016 the WHO recommended that there should be a major change to the treatment for drug resistant TB with shorter regimens being made available for many patients.

Previously treatment for drug resistant TB had often required a large number of drugs to be taken taken for up to two years. Also the drugs often caused severe side effects in patients. So various efforts were being made to develop shorter regimens which were easier to take.

The first shorter and easier to tolerate regimen is known as the Bangladesh regimen. It appears to have a higher cure rate than “standard” MDR-TB regimens.

There is more about the treatment of drug resistant TB.