Evolution Of Drug Resistant Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis has long been a disease that the human culture has been dealing with which entails significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. With dealing with such a horrific disease over the years, discoveries and evolution on the appropriate ways to contain, diagnose, and challengingly treat the disease has changed. One of the most concerning complications of this worldwide public health issue is the ability for it to quickly spread in high populated areas while becoming ever more resistant to forms of treatment not available in all locations around the world. This is a serious public

While tuberculosis was never completely eliminated, there was a significant drop in cases and death rates, as a result of the BCG vaccine and new anti-tubercular drugs in the 1950’s.

Tuberculosis, the white plague as used to be called once upon a time is still one of the deadliest bacterial killers affecting almost all parts, all corners of the globe. Though successful anti-tubercular antibiotic regimens and effective vaccine are available for decades and being used in the battle against Koch’s bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of this chronic multi organ granulomatous disease, our strand in the battle continuously seems to be in the losing side. Moreover the increasing prevalence of HIV-AIDS and diabetes mellitus is being proved to be providing predisposition to tuberculosis. As witnessed by the WHO, which has estimated that, in the year 2012, 8.6 million people have developed tuberculosis and 1.3 million have died of the disease including 320000 deaths of HIV-TB co-infected people (Global tuberculosis report 2013. World Health Organization; 2013). Long term antibiotic therapy and that too associated with several side effects and discomforts have diminished patient compliance with the anti-tubercular chemotherapy. This fact in turn has raised the new deadlier MDR-TB and XDR-TB strains. The whole scenario is a matter of panic and questioning the effectiveness of anti-tubercular antibiotics, immunologic efficacy of century old BCG vaccine and all other medical advents.

Tuberculosis is one of the major causes of death from many infectious diseases (3). Out of 9 million people who are infected with mycobacteria, about 2 million deaths occur from tuberculosis every year (3). Unfortunately, the prevalence of tuberculosis is in a continuous increase due to increased number of Human immunodeificnecy virus (HIV) patients, bacterial resistance to anti-tuberculous drugs, and growing number of recreational drug users (3). The pathogen responsible for bacterial infection, potentially causing tuberculosis, is mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) (2). Persons with adequate immune system can control the bacterial infection so mycobacteria remain dormant for a long time (11). In a typical tuberculous granuloma, mature

In an era where we consider the improvement of technology as the key to overcoming most a finding of diseases. Tuberculosis disease has been in existence for years; the ancient plague of tuberculosis continues to spread throughout population and countries. Beyond any other infectious disease. “In 2013, 9 million people around the world became sick with TB disease. There were around 1.5 million TB-related deaths worldwide (Kim, Shakow, Castro, Vande, & Farmer, 2015).” With all the technology improvement and drugs we still struggle to manage this deadly disease. Between 18th and19th century tuberculosis spread and reaches its maximal growth in urban and industrial environment of the united states and Europe. During that time in the Western

Intro: Tuberculosis is a disease that affects many individuals throughout the world, and not always with the same prevalence.

If this were to occur today, it could potentially be a problem but not as big of an issue as it was during the 19th century. All deploying soldiers must have a tuberculosis test within 12 months of deployment. During the Mexican Independence war, there was no such thing as tuberculosis skin test. Therefore, soldiers who would have tested positive still went to war. Furthermore, numerous amounts of rebel troops were in hiding therefore it made it easier for the disease to spread from soldier to soldier. This resulted in about 50 deaths out of 2000 during the Mexican Independence War. Today, soldiers who test positive for this disease do not have to go to combat. However, there are still many problems that are arising. For instance, antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) infections.

Molly Cason from Clinical Correlations stated “In a city of over 8 million people, New York City has an annual tuberculosis case rate of 11.4 per 100,000 people, which is more than twice the national average.” When penicillin came out in 1928 people were ecstatic. Every time one of their children felt abnormally tired they would give them an antibiotic pill and send them to bed. We have created this problem. This is our fault. We made bacteria mutate faster and now we are having trouble keeping up. But this story may end like The Hare and the Tortoise. We may not be able to evolve faster than mother nature but we might be able to win the race in a different

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the oldest recorded human diseases known to man, and is still the deadliest killers among bacterial infections (Smith). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), TB is believed to have killed more people worldwide than all the wars and famines combined. TB once viewed as a death sentence in the past, is now a preventable and treatable disease. However, even though this is now a preventable and treatable disease TB continues to kill millions each year. Since the first anti-TB drugs were used to fight TB 60 years ago some TB bacteria have developed resistance to these drugs

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the most overwhelming pathogens that to the day is known for produce annually around 2-3 million casualties worldwide.

Since the 1940s, the rate of deaths and cases of Tuberculosis (TB) has been decreasing in developed countries. However, the disease remains to be a major health challenge among developing countries, mostly from Asia and Africa. The disease is persistent in these areas due to lack of inadequate health facilities (Salinas et al., 2016). TB has been worsened by its strong association with HIV. The combination of the two diseases has led to TB drug resistance breeds that have become a threat to the developing countries and now spreading to the developed countries (Sulis et al., 2014).

tuberculosis, M.bovis, M.africanum, M.microti, and M. canettii. M. tuberculosis is responsible for the vast majority of TB cases in the United States” (p.4).

Tuberculosis, or more commonly TB, is a chronic infection caused by the rod- shaped bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Furlan, Silva, & Marcon, 2014). This bacterium was discovered by Dr. Robert Koch in 1882, and since its discovery, TB has continued to be one of the leading cause of human mortality in the world (Cambau, & Drancourt, 2014). Regrettably, over 1/3 of the world’s populace has tuberculosis (CDC, 2016a). This grim statistic makes it very difficult to contain each occurrence of tuberculosis. This is one of the issues surrounding the disease today. Furthermore, vaccines like the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine, exists for Tuberculosis; however, its effectiveness is dependent on region, genetic differences in the

For years now drug resistance is increasing and not just in one or two strands of bacteria, it is in all of them. This resistance makes treating a patient with the infection more difficult to the point where some strands require surgery. Tuberculosis is not a bacterium that you can easily remove from the body though. It takes time and medication for the tuberculosis to be eradicated from the body. The problem is with the advancements of medicine bacterium, like tuberculosis, are starting to produce resistance to not just one or two drugs here or there, but the bacteria is producing resistance for multiple drugs at one time.

In 2011, WHO estimated 12 million prevalent cases of tuberculosis worldwide, of which about 630 000 (roughly 5%) were MDR tuberculosis. The highest caseloads of MDR tuberculosis were reported in India, China, Russia, and South Africa, which accounted for more than 60% of cases worldwide. India and China have the highest number of MDR tuberculosis cases worldwide. Tuberculosis has now been made a notifiable disease in India. Drug resistance surveys in several states have indicated that the prevalence of MDR TB in India is 2–3 percent among new cases and 12-17 percent among reinfection cases. According to drug